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Show uu OIL FLOWS FAST AND PRICES DROP Crude Oil Production Is Greatest in History Law of Supply and Demand De-mand Operates to Bring Cheaper Gasoline. As production of crude oil at the wells rises, the price of gasoline Is falling in cent and half-cent drops. Production of crude oil during 1915 was the greatest In the history of the world, the United States Geological Survey giving tho total as 426,892,673 barrels, greater by 28,194,307 barrels than the best previous year, 1914. Of this total, the United States produced over half, or 281,101,104 barrels; Russia Rus-sia Is second with GS.548,062 barrels, and Mexico third with 32,910.50S. Since the first of the year many more wells in this country have been drilled down to oil, and It is expected that this year's output will be even greater than last. In fact, many think that it will be great enough to bring gasoline down to 20 cents a gallon from its present wholesale price of 23 cents, though this has been denied by various of the big oil companies, who point out that while production bus been greatly increased both by increases in-creases in crude supplies and in the utilization of new refining methods that increase the yield of fuel suitable for Internal combustion engines, the demand is still sufficiently heavy to maintain price. Though some aro Inclined to give credit for the fall in prices to tho Federal Fed-eral Investigation that was started last Spring, It Is certain that what the country now Is witnessing Is one of the natural downward swings that occur oc-cur periodically In the prices of raw Commodities. When .prices are low, production Is slackened, and this, by decreasing the supplies, raises tho prices. Higher prices in turn cause an increase in production, the refiners desiring to take advantage of tho opportunity op-portunity for increased profits. The greater production, however, causes the prices to drop, and the cycle Is completed. This is but the operation of the law of supply and demand. At tho same time it is recognized: that the structure of the oil Industry Is such that price movements are made with striking unanimity. That even now the return swing to higher prices may be imminent is shown by the announcement from the Oklahoma fields that production is about to be curtailed, prices having been found to be so low as to discourage efforts to do more than fill present demands. Benzol has also been produced In greater volume than ever before, it now being the by-product of greatest value secured from the coke ovens. In 1914 the total value of American benzol ben-zol was less than $1,000,000, while in 1915 It" was $7,750,000, for a volume of 16,600,657 gallons. Of this output more than 13,000,000 gallons- was reported re-ported as light oil valued at 33 cents a gallon, representing the crude benzol ben-zol from which toluol had been extracted ex-tracted and sold at fancy prices to manufacturers of explosives. While use of the Burton process of distillation, which has helped to increase in-crease the yield of gasoline, is at present restricted to the Standard Oil company of Indiana, and Its licenses, suit has been filed against this company com-pany which, if successful, will throw the process more widely open to refiners, re-finers, and thereby, it is hoped, bring still more gasoline into the market. The suit has been brought by tho Universal OH Products company, Chicago, Chi-cago, and claims the Burton process to have been anticipated by and to infringe in-fringe the Jesse A. Dubbs' process patent, issued January 5, 1915. The Dubbs' patent application was filed on November 20, 1909, while the Burton Bur-ton application was not made yntll 1912. Automobile Topics. |