PETROUEUM. 53 



91 cents ^ for artificial city gas scarcely half as good. Since natural 

 gas is the cheapest and most convenient fuel for the home, it seems 

 unfortunate that the limited supply should be squandered for pur- 

 poses for which coal would suffice. 



A full utilization of oil-well gas is dependent upon the course of 

 progress in oil production, as the waste in this connection is merely 

 part of the inferior utilization characterizing the petroleum resource. 

 The proper utilization of " dry " gas, however, involves the elimina- 

 tion of haste-forcing competition among the natural gas companies, 

 which can only come from the control of gas fields by large, well- 

 integrated units, so as to obviate the current overproduction which 

 supports an undue industrial use in regions amply supplied with 

 coal.^ 



While the production of gasoline from natural gas has been largely 

 confined to casing-head gas, because of its relative richness in gaso- 

 line vapor, the recent development of absorption processes extends 

 the possibility to the bulk of the "dry" gas produced. It is con- 

 servatively estimated that a gasoline production of 100,000,000 gallons 

 a year could probably be attained in this manner, and a significant 

 start is already under way.' 



THE LIMITATION. 



We have examined briefly the character and occurrence of petroleum 

 and reviewed in broad outline the industrial activity engaged in the 

 exploitation of this substance. With the magnitude and importance 

 of the petroleum industry in mind, it becomes desirable to observe 

 the portion of the resource not yet used in order to measure its capa- 

 bility toward sustaining a growing responsibility. 



THE PETBOLEUM BESEBTE. 



While unmined petroleum, like other mineral resources not exposed 

 to sight, can not be inventoried with a nicety of exactness, the proven 

 and prospective oil fields of the United States are, nevertheless, so 

 broadly known that the petroleum reserves may be estimated within 

 a very reasonable margin of error.* This has been done by the 



* The price of artificial city gas Is much higher than It need be In a revised system 

 of fuel utilization. The cheap supply of natural gas offered Industrial users has been 

 one of the factors retarding an effective market for by-product coke-oven gas, thus 

 hindering to a certain measure the adequate development of a coal-products industry In 

 this country. 



* Natural gas production under cooperative or organized control could render a more 

 distinct service in emergencies such as the present than It Is capable of under current 

 conditions. As a war measure natural gas must be ruthlessly sacrificed as a reserve 

 brought to the aid of coal ; but such service should be distinctly temporary. 



* See George A. Burrell and others, Extraction of gasoline from natural gas by absorp- 

 tion methods: Bulletin 120, Bureau of Mines, 1917. 



* Few, other than engineers, realized the extent and accurateness of the data bearing 

 on mineral deposits which the rigorously scientific methods of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey have collected. 



79968— 19— Bull. 102, vol. 1 5 



