CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -NEW DELHI: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has bought the country’s first shale oil from the US and is looking to step up imports from America as part of its crude diversification strategy.

Detailed explanation-2: -The United States, however, has the most shale resources. Spanning the U.S. states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, the Green River formation is an underground oil shale formation that contains as much as 1.8 trillion barrels of shale oil.

Detailed explanation-3: -The top five source countries of U.S. gross petroleum imports in 2021 were Canada, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia. Note: Ranking in the table is based on gross imports by country of origin. Net import volumes in the table may not equal gross imports minus exports because of independent rounding of data.

Detailed explanation-4: -In the 10th century, the Arabian physician Masawaih al-Mardini (Mesue the Younger) described a method of extraction of oil from “some kind of bituminous shale". In the early 14th century, the first use of shale oil was recorded in Switzerland and Austria.

Detailed explanation-5: -The United States has significant oil shale resources, primarily within the Green River Formation in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. These oil shale resources underlie a total area of 16, 000 square miles and represent the largest known concentration of oil shale in the world.