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quarter of the 20th century, the United States overtook Russia as
the world's largest oil producer. By the 1920s, oil fields had been
established in many countries including Canada, Poland, Sweden,
the Ukraine, the United States, Peru and Venezuela.
The first successful oil tanker, the Zoroaster, was built in
1878 in Sweden, designed by Ludvig Nobel. It operated from
Baku to Astrakhan. A number of new tanker designs were
developed in the 1880s.
In the early 1930s the Texas Company developed the first
mobile steel barges for drilling in the brackish coastal areas of the
Persian Gulf. In 1937 Pure Oil Company (now part of Chevron
Corporation) and its partner Superior Oil Company (now part of
ExxonMobil Corporation) used a fixed platform to develop a field
in 14 feet (4.3 m) of water, one mile (1.6 km) offshore of
Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. In early 1947 Superior Oil erected a
drilling/production oil platform in 20 ft (6.1 m) of water some 18
miles[vague] off Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. It was Kerr-McGee
Oil Industries (now Anadarko Petroleum Corporation), as operator
for partners Phillips Petroleum (ConocoPhillips) and Stanolind Oil
& Gas (BP), that completed its historic Ship Shoal Block 32 well
in October 1947, months before Superior actually drilled a
discovery from their Vermilion platform farther offshore. In any
case, that made Kerr-McGee's well the first oil discovery drilled
out of sight of land [22].
After World War II ended, the countries of the Middle East
took the lead in oil production from the United States. Important
developments since World War II include deep-water drilling, the
introduction of the Drillship, and the growth of a global shipping
network for petroleum relying upon oil tankers and pipelines. In
the 1960s and 1970s, multi-governmental organizations of oil–
producing nations OPEC and OAPEC played a major role in
setting petroleum prices and policy. Oil Spills and their cleanup
have become an issue of increasing political, environmental, and
economic importance.

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