604 R. ARNOLD GENERAL CONDITIONS OF PETROLEUM INDUSTRY 



Page 



Asia 614 



General distribution 614 



Turkey 614 



Persia 614 



Arabia 614 



India 614 



China 614 



East Indies and adjacent islands 615 



Dutch East Indies 615 



Philippine Islands 615 



Japan. 615 



Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea 615 



Africa 616 



Summary 616 



Inteoduction 



Petroleum has assumed such a position in the industrial world in the 

 last few years as to place it in the first group of minerals essential to 

 civilization, and as its discovery and recovery are so obviously problems 

 of applied geology, it is peculiarly fitting that the Geological Society of 

 America should devote especial attention to it at this time. 



It is the purpose of this paper, which is intended to open the discussion, 

 to briefly outline the present conditions surrounding the oil industry and 

 the problems confronting it, especially the most important problem, that 

 of future supply. 



G-ENERAL Conditions surrounding the Petroleum Industry 



PRESENT WORLD'S OUTPUT 



The world^s production of crude petroleum in 1915 was 427,695,347 

 barrels; the 281,104,104 barrels of this produced in the United States 

 was worth an average of about 80 cents per barrel, or a total of $224,883,- 

 283 ; the balance of the world^s production was worth at least an average 

 of $1 per barrel, so that the total value of the entire world^s production 

 for that year was approximately $371,474,526. The value of the deriva- 

 tives of this oil could not have been less than a billion to two billion 

 dollars. 



The relative rank of oil producers of the countries of the world with 

 respect to one another is shown by the following table compiled by the 

 United States Geological Survey: 



