1961 North Africa Oil and Gas Developments

This is a scarce and important map concerning oil concessions in northwest Africa. The map was published in January of 1961 as a supplement to World Oil by the Houston based Gulf Publishing Co. This oil map of northwest Africa presents the region from Senegal and the Canary Islands in the west to Tunisia and Libya in the east. Throughout the map gas and oil fields and wells are located as well as refineries and cities with air fields. Red lines show the boundaries of hundreds of concessions, all of which are labeled on the map and listed in a corresponding key at lower right. Crude oil and gas pipelines are shown and differentiated as existing, proposed, and under construction by a variety of blue lines that are also noted an explanation just below the map title.  A Brief History of Oil in Northwest Africa The exploration for oil and gas resources in Northwest Africa began in the early 20th century during the colonial period. Algeria and Libya, in particular, were early players in the