The weak link in pavement is bitumen, the black petroleum product that holds the bits of rock together.

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All this heating, plus refining bitumen into something approximating everyday petroleum, gobbles 1, 300 to 2, 100 cubic feet of natural gas per barrel of crude produced.

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On the other hand, some 60 percent of Lithuania's export earnings are generated from products derived from Soviet-supplied oil and sold to Western Europe. (It is noteworthy, however, that over 90 percent of the hard currency generated from these energy exports goes directly to Moscow's coffers.) Oil refining facilities in Mazeikiai, Lithuania produced 12.7 million tons of petroleum products in 1987 including gasoline, refined crude, diesel, bitumen, various liquid gases and sulphur.

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Indeed, the Anglo-Dutch multinational announced today that it had inked an agreement to acquire Koch Materials China , which is involved in the manufacture and marketing of bitumen--that black viscous residue taken from the distillation of crude petroleum--in the country.

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