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Chapter 8: INDUSTRIAL
LOCATION FACTORS - ENERGY INDUSTRY
Petroleum Industry
Petroleum refineries are set up
near three locations viz. Raw material site, Market place or Break
of the bulk location i.e. ports or coastal areas were mode of
transportation changes from ships to pipelines.
Location at Raw material
Petroleum industry will become useless after the
raw material is exhausted. The cost of transportation saved is
only 10-11% so not much impact. Petroleum is not a high weight
loss raw material and all by-products obtained at different stages
are utilized. However refined products have a high rate of
evaporation so industry has certain advantages for location near
site of raw materials.
Areas of raw materials such as Middle east and Africa have seen
nationalization and so tough for industries to be located here.
The political situation is also tense.
Location near Ports
Petro-chemical complexes are also located near
ports as the facilitation of exports and imports is high there.
The regions like Middle east and South America aren't
industrialized and so prefer to export crude oil or refined
products. The countries like Japan that depend on imported oil
also have refineries at port location.
Location near Market Place
Petro-chemical refineries located near market place too
have advantage as they can switch from getting raw material like
crude oil from one place to another. Improvement in transportation
like tankers, pipelines also make supply to market easy. The by
products too are consumed. Metropolitan areas provide unskilled
labor and skilled labor for the industries. Secondary industries
too can come up.
Note:
Secondary industry like Nylon, polyester i.e. true
synthetic fiber industry depends on petro-chemical industry.
Benzene is a base material needed for manufacturing of true
synthetic fibers but this is volatile and toxic hence difficult to
transport. However manufacturing of synthetic fibers is done then
the fibers are non volatile and can be transported easily. Hence
such industries are located close to petro-chemical complexes.
Natural synthetic fibers like rayon are made from cellulose or
wood pulp. They are present close to pulp mills.
Natural Gas
Natural gas is also a source of energy but it has advantages over
petroleum like cheap, no extensive need for refining and lower
carbon emissions. The disadvantages are transportation is
difficult, pipelines are cheapest option however the initial
capital is high and once a pipeline is laid it can't be increased.
If natural gas isn't consumed it is destroyed by fracking.As it is
economical to mine gas only where market is available and pipeline
distribution is laid the location of industries depends on this.
Natural gas is also needed for manufacturing of ammonia. Ammonia
is essential in urea based fertilizers. The other constituent of
urea based fertilizers is Neptha obtained from crude oil refining.
Thus fertilizer industry is located near Natural gas refineries.
Labor requirement is less and skilled labor is needed. But
skilled labor is highly mobile and so can migrate to townships
specifically built for petro-chemical employees.