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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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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