Economic History - extractive industries

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Description: In the early nineteenth century, the indigenous oil industry at Yenangyaung may have been the largest in the world. The article summarizes and evaluates the descriptions of nineteenth and early twentieth century European observers, with special attention to the pre-colonial uses of the oil, the legends about the site, the local institutions governing ownership of the wells, the indigenous methods of oil extraction, and the Europeans?estimates of production levels
Creator/author: Marilyn Longmuir
Source/publisher: Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 5 (2000)
2000-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: After the annexation of Upper Burma in 1886, the modern Burmese oil industry expanded at Yenangyaung, the long-standing center of hand-dug wells worked by twinza. An earlier attempt to establish a commercial industry in Arakan in the late 1870s was thereby eclipsed. On the islands off the Arakan coast -- Ramree, Cheduba, and the Boronga Islands -- British explorers had drawn attention to oil pools and seepage. In 1878, the first modern oil well in Burma was drilled on Eastern Boronga Island. However, the eager oil speculators had not done their homework, and the Arakan oil industry declined because the oil-fields were poor producers and thus not economically viable for mass production. The Arakan experience nonetheless influenced the early commercial exploitation of the Yenangyaung fields.
Creator/author: Marilyn Longmuir
Source/publisher: Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 3 (1998)
1998-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-03-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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