问答题 翻译：THE OPEC oil cartel is about to turn 40, and the mood in the run-up to the grand heads-of-state party in Venezuela in less than three weeks time is jubilant. Not quite two years ago,oil was $10 a barrel and the cartel was on the brink of collapse. Now the oil price is well above $30 a barrel, and it shows little sign of coming down.

问答题 翻译：In these early days, as lamp oil, was the important product and the main objects of refining was to extract as much of it as possible from the crude. Lubricants and some fuel oil were also sold, but gasoline was burnt off as unwanted and bitumen was also largely useless.

问答题 翻译：crude petroleum is not an equilibrium mixture, and on a geological time scale its composition is slowly changing. S.R.silverman found that heating at 121C for two weeks caused detectable changes, the low-molecular-weight components formed being isotopically lighter so far as the carbon was concerned, than the original.