[1] Comodoro Rivadavia is a commercial and transportation center for the surrounding region, the largest city of Chubut, and an important export point for a leading Argentine petroleum district.

The National Museum of Petroleum is located in the General Mosconi neighbourhood 3 km north of central Comodoro Rivadavia.

The urgency to define short routes to transport products from Colonia Sarmiento and bring them to that village created the necessity of a port in the area of San Jorge Gulf.

American researcher Junius Bird and Finnish geographer Väinö Auer confirmed the existence of the Tehuelche people, who lived in the area of Rada Tilly some 9000 years ago.

This information was confirmed by Father Brea, who some years ago contributed to this theory with the discovery of utensils and human remains near Rada Tilly.

[citation needed] It is widely known that the Tehuelche, who came from the north of Patagonia during the warm summer, used to make camp where Rada Tilly is today.

On March 10, 1889, Francisco Pietrobelli, accompanied by the Tehuelche man Sainajo and Marcelo Pereira, came to Rada Tilly following FitzRoy's navigation charts in search of an anchoring place to set up a deep-water port where deep-draft ships could stop to supply the flourishing Colonia Sarmiento.

The corvette La Argentina, commanded by Commodore Martín Rivadavia, arrived near Mount Chenque in an exploratory mission and settled an anchorage place now called Kilometro 5, Caleta Córdova or Punta Borjas.

The village was named after the Spanish marine Francisco Everardo Tilly y Paredes, who during 1794 and 1795 gave combat and defeated the Portuguese army at the Rio Plata.

Although much of the oil was discovered on land given to Afrikaans settlers, they could not benefit directly from the discovery due to Argentinian law which decrees that all mineral deposits belong to the state.

By the end of 1919, most of the 1719 workers were given accommodation in small metal sheet houses without any heating or electric light with temperatures below zero and winds near 100 km/h.

The establishment of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) in 1922 led to the development of the town, further accelerated in the late 1950s by President Arturo Frondizi's oil campaign to foster the installation of numerous foreign companies.

Windmills on Cerro Chenque and surrounding hills comprise South America's largest wind farm and provide 20% of Comodoro's energy needs.

While the city receives just over 250 mm of rain annually, its relatively low evapotranspiration rate causes it to fall under this climate, as opposed to the arid (desert) category.

In 1922 YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales), the first state-owned oil company in the world, was created by President Hipólito Yrigoyen's government.

In 1958, Law Number 14,773 was signed by President Arturo Frondizi, establishing that the Government had exclusive ownership over all oil fields.

It was necessary to create a port in the area of San Jorge Gulf in order to have shorter routes for transporting products from and to the town of Sarmiento, situated 180 km away from the city of Comodoro Rivadavia.

The port facilities include: The city also is home to a factory that produces concrete, property of Petroquimica Comodoro Rivadavia S.A.

The most important sports in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia are basketball, football and car racing, among others such as land yachting, judo, rugby and athletics.

Land yachting has become very popular in the city and the beaches of Rada Tilly, together with the windy climate, are ideal to practise the sport.