SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



of the fuel future was focused for me by two-score pe- 

 troleum technical men from Tulsa to Port Arthur, from 

 Baton Rouge to Brownsville. It looks like this: 



"Periodically we have been warned of our failing 

 petroleum reserves, which have recently been said to 

 be good for fourteen years. Such estimates have always 

 been revised to more distant dates by the discovery of 

 new fields. Since fourteen years was set, oil in quantity 

 has been found west of the Pecos River in Texas and 

 east of the Mississippi all the way around to Florida. 

 There are surely big, unexplored oil fields offshore all 

 along the Gulf of Mexico. 



"Not only is there more oil in reserve, but through 

 deeper drilling and better conservation, existing fields 

 will yield more oil than in the past. Joint improvements 

 in fuel and engines will also stretch our petroleum 

 supplies. 



"Eventually we shall assuredly run short of petroleum. 

 However, we know this and we shall import more crude, 

 first from Central and South America, later from the 

 Near East. 



"The first sign of serious depletion will be rising 

 prices, and the price of fuel oil, because of increased 

 industrial and marine demands, may soon rise above 

 the reach of the householder for home heating. 



"Higher prices for all petroleum products will be a 

 compelling incentive to more efficient refining. Twenty- 



248 



