In the great chains of mountains belonging to the alpine system, stretchin from the Armenian upland throught Eastern Mesopotamia, Western and Sourthern Persia, and Baluchistan up to the Indus, then—in a great curve—encircling the Indian tableland in the Kirthar and Suleiman ranges and the Himalayas, then in the east turing south to Burma—there are several regions rich in oil, following the foot of the mountain-ranges on the border of the plains extending in front to the south. The most important of these oil-regions arrange themselves into three chief groups: the Mesopotamian-Persian region, the Baluchistan-Punjab region, and the Burmese region.