PETTIOLEUM. 69 



practice, from 90 to 30 per cent of the oil is left underground.^ Then, 

 of the quantity produced, an appreciable percentage is lost by fire, 

 and a significant portion dissipated by seepage and evaporation due 

 to inadequate storage facilities.^ On the average, therefore, it is safe 

 to say that less than 25 per cent of the petroleum underground reaches 

 the pipe line. If we subtract from this proportion the losses in- 

 volved in improper and wasteful methods of utilization, the recovery 

 factor becomes perhaps as low as 10 per cent.^ 



Kjiowledge of petroleum technology is far in advance of its appli- 

 cation to oil production, due to the fact that this country is actively 

 engaged in producing such knowledge, but has at the same time 

 provided no adequate machinery for putting this knowledge into 

 play, once it is produced.* Of course part of this advance gets into 

 action where the gain from such application accrues to specific inter- 

 ests, but by and large there is a marked underconsumption of tech- 

 nological science, the discrepancy being often credited, though with 

 questionable validity, against the difi'erence between theory and 

 practice. We may review some of this technological knowledge 

 already in stock, having in mind that the supply is rapidly in- 

 creasing,' 



1 " Estimates of the total amount extracted range from 10 to 70 per cent, 90 to 30 

 per cent being left in tlie ground." — Van H. Manning, Yearbook of the Bureau of Mines, 

 1917, p. 127. 



" It is universally acknowledged that by the usual production methods much oil Is 

 left underground, the general opinion being that at least 50 per cent of the oil In a 

 field remains unrecovered when the field is abandoned as exhausted. From the writer's 

 own Investigations he believes the average recovery Is even less * ♦ * '• — j. o. Lewis, 

 Methods for increasing the recovery from oil sands, Bulletin 148, Bureau of Mines, 

 1917, p. 7. 



•Evaporation robs petroleum of its lighter components (i. e., gasoline), hence the 

 value loss is much greater than is apparent from the bulk removal. 



' This is not to be taken as an exact figure, but merely as a rough expression of 

 magnitude. No one, of course, can estimate such a matter closely. Twenty per cent 

 would certainly be too high ; 10 per cent, therefore, is not far from the true proportion 

 and is a very salutary figure to accept. 



" What effort have we made to conserve this supply and to utilize it to its greatest 

 advantage? We have made little effort until very recently to do these things. We have 

 been wasteful, careless, and recklessly ignorant. We ha.ve abandoned oil fields while a 

 large part of the oil' was still in the ground. We have allowed tremendous quantities 

 of gas to waste in the air. We have let water into the oil sands, ruining areas that 

 should have produced hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil. We lacked the knowledge 

 to properly produce one needed product without overproducing products for which we 

 have little need. We have used the most valuable parts of the oil for purposes to which 

 the cheapest should have been devoted. For many years the gasoline fractions were 

 practically a waste product during our quest for kerosene ; with the development of the 

 Internal-combustion engine the kerosene is now almost a waste product in our strenuous 

 efforts to increase the yield of lighter distillates." (Yearbook of the Bureau of Mines, 

 1916, Washington, 1917, p. 117.) If we add to this quotation the statement that gaso- 

 line is now almost a waste product in our efforts to make fuel oil help out a bad coal 

 situation, the picture will be true down to April, 1918. 



* An analogous situation would obtain if laws were made with no provision for putting 

 them into execution. 



• The treatment here, of necessity, merely touches on the more significant features. 

 For details the reader is referred to the numerous publications of the United States 

 Bureau of Mines concerning this matter. 



79968— 19— Bull. 102, vol. 1 6 



