OUR PETROLEUM SUPPLY 



By Hugh D. Miser 

 Z7. S. Geological Survey 



The petroleum supply of the United States is of great importance 

 whether we express the volume and value of the annual output in 

 barrels or dollars, or measure the service of petroleum in terms of 

 human welfare and progress. 



Petroleum is produced in many countries, and its products are used 

 in factories, on highways, and in homes in all lands. Although the 

 petroleum industry thus encircles the earth, it is outstandingly an 

 American industry. The drilling of wells for oil in the United 

 States began in 1859. Our country leads in the development of the 

 industry, and it produces and consumes three-fifths of the world's 

 annual output. Also, the United States possesses about half of the 

 world's known reserves of petroleum. 



PRESENT PRODUCTION AND USES OF PETROLEUM IN UNITED STATES 



Our domestic petroleum production is obtained from about 360,000 

 wells in 22 States; only a small part — about 5 percent — of our do- 

 mestic consumption is imported from other countries. 



The value of our petroleum output for 1937 measured in dollars is 

 one-fourth the value of the entire annual mineral production of the 

 United States. It exceeds the total value of all the metallic mineral 

 products combined for that year. The next mineral product in point 

 of value is coal, the next is iron, and then follows natural gas. 



Chief among the many uses of petroleum is the production of 

 power. Such power drives our 30,000,000 motor vehicles on the land, 

 our Navy on the ocean, and our planes in the air. Altogether, one- 

 third the mechanical energy produced in the United States comes 

 from petroleum and its companion mineral product, natural gas. 



Our domestic production through 1937 totals 19,972,000,000 bar- 

 rels. Texas stands first, having produced 5,127,000,000 barrels, a 



* Address of the retiring president of the Geological Society of Washington, delivered 

 December 14, 1938. Published by permission of the Director, Geological Survey, United 

 States Department of the Interior. Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 93-109, March 15, 1939. 



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