THE SEARCH FOR OH. 



By G. M. Lees 



[With 4 plates] 



Under the title of "The search for oil" I have given myself the task 

 of setting down, first, a short review of the present distribution of oil 

 production throughout the world ; second, a description of the general 

 nature of oil fields and of modern methods of exploration ; and third, 

 an account of current exploration for oil in Asia. It is well known 

 that the search for oil in all parts of the world is more active at the 

 present day than ever before, and yet at the same time there is such 

 a great potential overproduction from existing oil fields that the eco- 

 nomic structure of the industry is only supported by coordinated 

 restraint on the part of the producers. For example, the great oil 

 fields of the United States were given a fortnight's holiday in August 

 1939 in order that an embarrassing situation caused by uncomfort- 

 ably full surface storage might right itself. And yet one frequently 

 reads in current journals of a coming shortage of oil supplies and of 

 there being only 15 years of oil reserves in sight. How are these 

 apparent paradoxes to be reconciled ? 



THE WORLD'S OIL PRODUCTION 



The table (p. 235) gives the distribution of present production, total 

 production up to date, and an estimate of proved reserves of various 

 countries in the world.^ The outstanding pomts which emerge from a 

 study of it are, first, how small a number of countries in the world 

 contribute importantly to the total oil supply, and second, that of 

 these only two, the U. S. A. and the U. S. S. R., are themselves impor- 

 tant users. And what a curious, almost freakish, distribution ! It is 

 easy to answer that the distribution is controlled by geologic circum- 

 stances, but one's innate trust in the law of averages handicaps one in 

 believing that Providence really has endowed the U. S. A. with such 

 a dominating proportion of the world's oil. 



1 Reprinted by permission from the Geographical Journal, vol. 95, No. 1, January 1940. 

 " Garfias, Amer. Inst. Mln. and Metallurg. Eng., Ann. Meeting, New York, 1939. 



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