This was a popular question with the candidates although many of them could not draw good maps of Africa to show the areas known for petroleum and town in each of those areas. Question (8b) was technical and many could not correctly describe how petroleum is mined. The facts that were left out by the candidates in (b) part include:
- identification of oil bearing rock
- wells are sunk to reach the oil bearing rocks
-  drilling bits hit the oil fearing rock to release the oil which gushes out due to the pressure underneath.

In part (c) the problems of petroleum mining include:

- poor transport network
-  environmental pollution
- dry wells
- fluctuation in world market prices
- bunkering
- inadequate capital