ment-of reasonable limits and practical means for 

 pollution control. A recent example is the study 

 prepared for the President' * by the Departments 

 of the Interior and Transportation in consultation 

 with other Federal groups, with knowledgeable 

 representatives of the petroleum and other indus- 

 tries, and with representatives of coastal States. 



Joint efforts of this sort directed toward 

 practical pollution control should be actively 

 continued. Criteria should also be established for 

 the various users of bays, estuaries, and rivers so 

 that individual States wUl have accurate informa- 

 tion on which to establish effective, reaUstic, and 

 comparable pollution standards. 



VII. RELATIVE ROLES OF INDUSTRY AND 

 GOVERNMENT 



A. Relative Role of Industry 



The role now being played by the integrated 

 petroleum company in exploring, developing, pro- 

 ducing, shipping, and marketing offshore oil and 

 gas is well known and there is little need to discuss 

 it here. It might be worthwhile, however, to point 

 out the role successfully being played by the many 

 contracting and support companies. 



Fifteen years ago there were no offshore 

 drilling contractors. Today these firms ovm and 

 operate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of 

 equipment in every ocean of the world. Whatever 

 the fortunes of individual companies, it is certain 

 that marine contractors as a whole will be opera- 

 ting several times as much equipment in the near 

 future. These companies, and the operating com- 

 panies, also require support from a variety of other 

 specialists: companies to provide boat and helicop- 

 ter transportation needs throughout the hfe of a 

 field; services and equipment such as drilling mud, 

 machinery, and various completion techniques. All 

 of this is conrnionly preceded by other contracting 

 companies specializing in particular exploration 

 techniques. In this way, the petroleum industry as 

 a whole is able to maintain a very large number of 

 special capabilities and an even larger number of 

 technically competent people. 



Also, little has been said regarding the large 

 amount of research and development being carried 



Secretary of Transportation, Oil Pollution, A Report 

 to the President, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government 

 Printing Office, 1968). 



out by both the large petroleum companies and 

 the contracting companies. All major oil compa- 

 nies maintain large research laboratories and field 

 facilities to develop and test new scientific techno- 

 logical tools and concepts and many significant 

 advances have been made by the service compa- 

 nies—again, because of economic incentives suffi- 

 cient to justify these efforts. Not uncommonly, a 

 new technological advancement will yield no 

 unique competitive advantage to a particular com- 

 pany, but if perfected it would be of value to the 

 industry as a whole. In these cases various combi- 

 nations of major companies, or of contracting 

 companies, or both, will be formed in order to 

 take maximum advantage of individual capabili- 

 ties. Each of these successful efforts helps to 

 reduce the cost of developing petroleum at sea. In 

 1966 alone, the oil and offshore industry spent 

 over S30 million on research and development in 

 support of offshore operations. A 1967 estimate 

 runs to $50 milHon and it has been estimated that 

 close to $100 million will be spent for research 

 and development five years from now. 



Thus, the present role of the petroleum indus- 

 try is not merely one of exploring and developing 

 domestic marine oil and gas resources, but also one 

 of maintaining a large and diverse specialized 

 capability in broader offshore operation, as well as 

 one of conducting extensive research and develop- 

 ment in improving future capabilities. The indus- 

 try brings to offshore development a vast network 

 of refining, distributing and marketing facilities on 

 land, together with a century of experience in 

 developing land resources and an extensive back- 

 ground of exploration and development in all of 

 the world's oceans. As long as the economic 

 incentives are adequate there is Uttle doubt that 

 the petroleum industry wUl be able to continue its 

 present role in developing marine oil and gas 

 resources. 



B. Relative Role of Government 



Navigation charts and traffic control services 

 are always of value, but many operators still prefer 

 to contract in many areas for private navigation 

 facilities. Even though most operators also employ 

 private weather forecasting services, the basic 

 weather data collected by the Government are of 

 value to all operators. Federal research into predic- 

 tion (and perhaps eventual control) of such major 



Vll-220 



