In the ports of Tohoku District, the petroleum products occupied the high percentage in the imported cargoes. This is because the transprot of the petroleum products usually depends upon the marine transport because of the high transport cost owing to the fact that there is no refinery in Tohoku District except in Akita, and neither any large sea side industrial region.
From this reason, the authour has attempted to analyse the chacteristic feature of the distribution and it's mechanism of the petroleum products from the viewpoint of the relation between ports and their hinterlands. The result are summarized as follows;
1) The current mechanism is divided into three types by the usuage, with some difference among the regions.
2) As there is no refinery except in Akita, the ranges of influence of Aomori, Hachinohe, Akita, Funakawa, Shiogama, Kesenuma, Onahama, Keihin and Nigata, respectively are intricated one another with little relation to the distance from the refinery to the port.
3) The amount of sales by each kind of the petroleum products, particularly that of the heavy oil, at the oil tank partly indicates the characteristic feature of the industry in this region.
