When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be

When we think of oil, the part of the world that comes to mind first may be the Middle East. But(26)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(27)supplier of oil and the top(28)exporter of natural gas.
    In nineteen sixty Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela(29)formed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Its(30)influence may have reached a high point during the oil crisis(31)connected to the nineteen seventy-three Arab-Israeli war. Arab oil producers(32)boycotted the United States, western Europe and Japan because of their support for Israel. Since then, new discoveries and increased production in areas including countries of the former Soviet Union have provided more oil. Today OPEC has twelve members. The newest is Angola which joined in 2007.
    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.
    National oil companies are(33)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(34)take control of their oil industries.
    President Hugo Chavez has moved to nationalize oil operations in Venezuela. And in Russia, a series of actions resulted in state-owned companies gaining control of(35)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.