Petrolina
Encyclopedia
- For the petroleum company, see: Petrolina (company)Petrolina (company)Petrolina Public Limited is the largest Cypriot oil company dealing in a wide range of petroleum operations. It is based in Larnaca and has a nationwide retail network of 95 service stations. It supplies and markets motor, industrial, domestic, marine and aviation fuels...
.
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
, in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. The population was 281.851 in 2009 in a total area of 4756.8 km².http://www.ambientebrasil.com.br/municipios/index.php3?action=imprimir_item&item_id=2998
It is situated on the left bank of the São Francisco River
São Francisco River
The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...
across from its twin city of Juazeiro
Juazeiro
Juazeiro is a city and municipality in eastern Brazil in the state of Bahia . It had a population of 260,004, according to the 2010 census, and an area of 6,415.4 km². The population density was 31.34 hab/km² . The elevation is 373 meters. It became a city in 1833...
, Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
. The two cities, making up an urban area of almost 520.000 people, are connected by a modern bridge. Sobradinho
Sobradinho
The Sobradinho Reservoir is a large reservoir located in Sobradinho, north of the Brazilian state of Bahia. The reservoir measures approximately long, in surface area, and a storage capacity of at its nominal elevation of , making it the 12th-largest reservoir in the world...
dam, enclosing Sobradinho Lake, the second largest artificial lake in the world, is located 26 kilometers upriver.
Road connections are made by BR-407, connecting Feira de Santana
Feira de Santana
Feira de Santana is a city in Bahia, Brazil. It is the second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 700,000 according to IBGE's estimate. It is located 115 km northwest of Salvador, Bahia's capital city. These cities are connected by BR-324, a four-lane divided highway...
, near Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
, and Picos
Picos
Picos, is a municipality in the state of Piaui. Known as the Model City. Its residents are from various parts of the country. It is located in south-central region of Piaui. It is economically the most developed city in the region...
located in the state of Piauí
Piauí
Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...
. There are railroad connections in Juazeiro
Juazeiro
Juazeiro is a city and municipality in eastern Brazil in the state of Bahia . It had a population of 260,004, according to the 2010 census, and an area of 6,415.4 km². The population density was 31.34 hab/km² . The elevation is 373 meters. It became a city in 1833...
made by the Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica. The Petrolina Airport
Petrolina Airport
Senador Nilo Coelho Airport is the airport serving Petrolina, Pernambuco and Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil. It is named after the Petrolina-born Senator Nilo de Sousa Coelho .It is operated by Infraero.-History:...
is mainly for regional flights (daily flights to the capital Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
and Salvador), plus the international exportation of fresh fruits produced by irrigation agro-poles.
History
The origin of the name "Petrolina" comes from the merging of the original name "Pedra Linda", or "Beautiful Rocks". The growth of Petrolina and its sister city Juazeiro is the result of the construction of the Sobradinho dam and the abundant availability of water for irrigation in these desert soils. The region is perhaps the only one in the interior of the Northeast that has gained population through in-migration. While the population in the states of Pernambuco and Bahia as a whole increased by 50.1% between 1970 and 1990, it more than doubled in Petrolina-Juazeiro.For many years the economy of the Valley of the São Francisco was based on extensive cattle raising combined with subsistence farming.
Starting in the 1960s with the development policies implemented by the government, the valley soon became the beneficiary of important investments for economic development, translated into the construction of highways, increasing electrical energy, improvement in sanitation systems etc.
Investments made in the agricultural sector with the implantation of the irrigated sections of Bebedouro and Senador Nilo Coelho, in turn brought in the installation of factories connected to the regional agriculture base, especially producers of tomato paste, juices, textiles etc.
Agriculture has grown by leaps and bounds with irrigated farming being the main source of income and jobs in Petrolina. The Petrolina-Juazeiro nucleus has turned into a producer of a wide range of irrigated high-value crops, including table grapes and mangos that are sold fresh by cargo aircraft to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and other crops for the domestic market, including bananas, coconuts, guavas, passion fruit, melons, industrial tomatoes, watermelons, and onions, among others. Due to the miracle of irrigation, growers in Petrolina-Juazeiro produce 90% of the country's exports of mangos and 30% of table grapes, displacing the states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul as the most important exporters of these products.
Climate
Petrolina's climate is very hot and dry, being classified as hot semi-arid (Köppen climate classificationKöppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
BSh). Petrolina is located in the semi-arid belt from the Northeastern Region of Brazil that is characterized with low rainfall. The precipitation does not have good distribution in time or space. The rainy season begins in December and ends in May. After that, the climate is still dry until December.
The average daily temperature varies little throughout the year. Average daily temperature recorded in 1996 and 1997 was 25.8 °C, ranging from 34.4 to 23.2 °C. In the hottest months (from September to April), the average temperature was 27.3 °C and ranged from 35.6 °C to 22.5 °C. In the cooler months (May to August), the average temperature was 24.8 °C and ranged between 31.5 °C and 20.0 °C. This data does not take into account some extreme periods when the daily temperature exceeded 40 °C and did not drop below 33 °C at night. Annual precipitation was 650 mm per year during these years although it can vary between 100 and 900 mm.
Economy
Main crops in Tons
(2007)
- Mangos - 146.000
- Grapes - 112.200
- GuavaGuavaGuavas are plants in the myrtle family genus Psidium , which contains about 100 species of tropical shrubs and small trees. They are native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America...
- 67.760 - BananaBananaBanana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
- 45.000 - CoconutCoconutThe coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
-36.400 in thousands
There is also a substantial number of animals such as, in heads (2007):
- GoatGoatThe domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s - 99.500 - Sheep - 57.200
- CattleCattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
- 29.200 - PigPigA pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
s- 16.200 - DonkeyDonkeyThe donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
s- 10.400 - MuleMuleA mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s- 2.100 - HorseHorseThe horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s- 1.750
Economic Indicators
| Population | GDP x(1000 R$). | GDP pc (R$) | PE Pernambuco Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 294.081 | 2.375.492 | 8.601 | 3.37 % |
Economy by Sector
2006
| Primary sector | Secondary sector | Service sector |
|---|---|---|
| 22.79 % | 14.05 % | 63.16 % |
Health Indicators
| HDI Human Development Index The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries... (2000) |
Hospitals (2007) | Hospitals beds (2007) | Children's Mortality every 1000 (2005) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.747 | 5 | 431 | 25.6 |
Distances
- Salvador 512 km - (319 miles)
- RecifeRecifeRecife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
730 km - (454 miles) - BrasíliaBrasíliaBrasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
1550 km - (963 miles) - Rio de JaneiroRio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
1927 km - (1198 miles) - São PauloSão PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
2246 km - (1396 miles)
External links
- Petrolina in [Wikitravel]
- Petrolina City hall
- Video Petrolina http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DguAvfcEuDg
- Photo-Video Petrolina, Pernambuco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2BuEZL7Ajg
- Portal Petrolina With photos of the city
- Petrolina´s major hotel
- A study of the success of Petrolina and Juazeiro