Situated near major petroleum and natural-gas fields, Houston is the center of the national petroleum industry. The metropolitan region leads the nation in petrochemical manufacturing and refining, and consequently ranks first in the manufacture of agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides. Houston is the world's primary producer of oil-field equipment. Although the U.S. market for offshore platforms and drilling rigs has slumped badly, Houston manufacturing firms ship equipment to North Sea sites, and, in limited amounts, to the Persian Gulf. Companies based in Houston and other Texas cities have traditionally supplied technology and expertise to the petroleum companies of the Middle East and have made similar connections to governments involved in exploration and drilling in Southeast Asia. Other important manufactures in Houston include paper products, electrical and electronic machinery, and iron and steel. Houston also has mills for rice grown in the surrounding area.
Houston's specialized education and training facilities provide an extraordinary economic resource. Most economists consider the expansion of technological research and the growth of the medical complexes to be the result of the collapse of petroleum prices in the 1980s and the resulting forced diversification of the region's economic base. The city's centers of research and technology include the Texas Medical Center, which is world-renowned for its pioneering work in organ transplants. The center comprises 13 hospitals and two medical schools. Other local facilities are the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Houston Advanced Research Center, an organization funded by grants, which links technology to commercial uses; and the nearby Texas A&M University at Galveston, which along with the university's main campus in College Station, has carried out important work in marine biology, oceanography, and other marine-related sciences.
