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Show PROMINENT OIL MEN, ENGINEERS AND GE0L0 GISTS BEFORE MEETING OF FEDERAL AID OIL CONSERVATION BOARD AT WASHINGTON, D. C. EIGHT YEARS SET AS THE LIMIT Herbert Hoover Reports Assertion that Oil Burned as Fuel is Not Wasted Some very startling facts were brought out at a recent meeting of the Federal Oil Conservation board held in Washington this month. Besides the. board, itself, and the secretaries of the interior and commerce, com-merce, the meeting was attended by over fifty of the foremost oil m6n, engineers and geologists in the United States. The oil situation in all its phases, from drilling to use, was descussed. Secretary Work, at the beginning o the meeting, stated the purpose of the meeting an "inquiry" not an "investigation'' as to how best to conserve the rapidly depleting the known supply of oil, and not an investigation in-vestigation seeking how to punish some one. He said the meeting was the oil industries' not the government's that the government was vitally interested, in-terested, because the .government produced over ten per cent of all the j i 1 produced in the country; and as j. producer it Wanted to learn what iJier producers thought of the var-.ous var-.ous oil problems a ad the be.;t v. a; o solve them. i billions, two hundred and fifty millions of gasoline were con sumed in 1925, and Mark Requa of San Francisco estimated that there is only oil enough in the United States to last eight years if consumption con-sumption does not increase and we can get it out in that time. However, consumption will increase and we cannot get it out in that time, consequently, con-sequently, new discoveries are absolutely ab-solutely imperative. The country uses 75,000,000 barrels bar-rels of gasoline and SO, 000, 000 barrels bar-rels of oil as fuel each year. While this is not w-aste it is putting oil to a use where something else might be substituted. Earl Oliver, of Oklahoma, said, we should encourage the development develop-ment of substitutes because we have no way of knowing how many and how large oil beds remain to be discovered. We know how rapid can be the decline in our daily supply if new discoveries are not frequently made. On May 30. 1925 our daily aver age was 2,350.000 barrels, while on February 1st. this year, if vas only 1,915.000. a daily loss of 435.000 barrels, or an annual reduction of about 27.6 per cent. During that period of eight months j the oil companies were not inactive j in their attempts to make new dis-1 coveries. On the contrary they were , active and vigilant. Thus a 27.6 peri ceut rate of decline took place not-withstanding not-withstanding much drilling contin ued and considerable new production produc-tion was developed to offset the decline de-cline in the older wells. "Since we realize how rapidly the decline, and also that we can never determine which Is to be the permanent decline until frantic efforts ef-forts to find new pools will have failed. It is quite clear It will not be the part of wisdom for the nation to continue Its present system of I strenuously depleting each pool im- mediately upon discovery and yet rte I lay prepnra'ion for providing ade- j ouate substitutes until the shortage I is known to be upon us. Rnalizine as ! we do the importance of petroleum i to this nation, the uncertair.tv of i ' ! the supply and the wasteful manner it is being developed, it is inconceivable inconcei-vable that the petroleum industry will rest content without determining determin-ing some manner in which these evils ev-ils can be overcome." Secretary Hoover told the gathering gath-ering that the problem revolved about the supply available for jnt'er-nal jnt'er-nal combustion engines and the fuel oil. "I don't take it that when oil is burned as fuel oil it is wasted." he said. The question we have before us U better utilization. We must secure a better utilization of all national resources at our disposal." L. V. Nichols, of Chicaeo. nresi- dent of the .National Petroleum Markets association, said, "he leaned lean-ed to conservation in some form or other and suggested the consideration considera-tion of legislation to restrict the consumption of petroleum products to superior uses." Petroleum exhaustion is not on.y a menace, but a great national danger. dan-ger. America, without petroleum, could easily be subjugated by the Orientals in a few, month's time. History shows that the masses have, with few exceptions, recognized recog-nized "opportunity" a few days af ter it has ca'.'ed at their gate and j then only, after the great financial rewards are in the hands of the few. |