ECONOMICS REPORT - The Worldwide Spread of Oil
Thu, 29 Nov 2007
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
经济报告――石油的全球分布
2007年11月29日星期四
这是VOA特别英语的经济报道。
When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be the Middle East. But petroleum development takes place worldwide.
Nigeria, for example, is the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest producer in the world. Russia is the world's second largest exporter of oil and the top exporter of natural gas.
当我们想起石油时,(首先)进入我们思维的地区是中东。但是,石油开发分散于全球。
例如,尼日利亚是非洲最大的石油生产国,并且是全球第11大石油生产国。俄罗斯是世界第二大石油输出国,并且是天然气最大输出国。
But the country that produces and exports more oil than any other is Saudi Arabia. The Saudis hold one-fourth of the world's proven oil reserves.
Last year, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries produced about twenty-eight percent of the world's oil supply. The United States Energy Department says they also held fifty-five percent of known reserves.
但是,生产与输出石油最大国是沙特。沙特拥有世界石油探明储量的四分之一。
去年,沙特和其它海弯国家大约生产了全球石油供应的28%。美国能源部说,海弯国家也拥有已知储量的55%。
The other Gulf producers are Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Iran has ten percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Iraq is also estimated to have a large supply of oil, and unexplored areas may hold much more.
In nineteen sixty Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Today OPEC has twelve members. The newest is Angola which joined this year.
其它海弯生产国有巴林、伊朗、伊拉克、科威特和阿联酋。伊朗拥有世界石油探明储量的10%;伊拉克估计也拥有大量的石油供应,并且非探明地区也许拥有更多的储量。
在1960年,伊朗、伊拉克、科威特、沙特和委内瑞拉成立了OPEC(石油输出国组织)。OPEC目前拥有12名成员国,最新成员国是今年加入的安哥拉。
High oil prices have brought new attention to OPEC. Its members produce about forty percent of the world's oil. But two of the world's top three oil exporters, Russia and Norway, are not OPEC members.
Its influence may have reached a high point during the oil crisis connected to the nineteen seventy-three Arab-Israeli war. Arab oil producers boycotted the United States, western Europe and Japan because of their support for Israel.
高油价使OPEC再次引人注目。其成员国几乎生产全球石油的40%。但是,世界最大三个石油生产国中的二个国家,俄罗斯和挪威,却不是OPEC成员。
OPEC的影响在阿伊战争相关的石油危机中达到了顶点。由于支持以色列,阿拉伯石油生产国抵制了美国、西欧和日本。
Since then, new discoveries and increased production in areas including countries of the former Soviet Union have provided more oil.
National oil companies are estimated to control about eighty percent of the world's oil supply. In recent years, rising oil prices have led more governments to act, either directly or indirectly, to take control of their oil industries.
自此以后,由于在包括前苏联在内的一些地区的新发现以及增产,已经提供了更多的石油。
国家控制的石油公司估计控制了世界石油供应的大约80%。近年来,油价上涨使更多的国家采取直接或间接的措施,以控制其石油工业。
President Hugo Chavez has moved to nationalize oil operations in Venezuela. And in Russia, a series of actions resulted in state-owned Rosneft gaining control of reserves held by Yukos. Yukos was Russia's largest private company, until the government said it owed billions of dollars in taxes and jailed its founder, Russia's richest man.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Our report last week on the history of oil can be found at www.unsv.com. I'm Faith Lapidus.
在委内瑞拉,总统胡格.查韦斯已经着手石油业务的国有化。另外,在俄罗斯,一系列的行动使国有石油公司Rosneft控制了曾为尤科斯拥有的储量。尤科斯之前曾是俄罗斯最大的私有公司,但俄罗斯政府说,尤科斯欠税数十亿美元,并且将其奠基人(也是俄罗斯最富之人)入狱。
这是由Mario Ritter编写的、VOA特别英语的经济报道。关于我们上周的报道(石油历史),请参见www.unsv.com。我是Faith Lapidus。
|