WHERE THE WORLD GETS ITS OIL 



But Where Will Our Children Get It When American 



Wells Cease to Flow? 



By George Otis Smith 



Director United States Geological Survey 



IN THE course of the centuries the 

 raw-material issue changes. In the 

 long-bow epoch of England's mili- 

 tary strength the conservationist feared 

 a depletion of the yew wood which might 

 give the Teuton, backed up by his larger 

 forests, an obvious advantage in light 

 ordnance. Later, when Great Britain's 

 naval power depended upon her wooden 

 ships of war, the anxious naval chief 

 foresaw a possible shortage of the oak 

 which made the walls that stood between 

 England and her enemies. 



The yew and the oak are no longer es- 

 sential to national defense, for steel has 

 proved the substitute in both arms and 

 armor plate. Yet today those who plan 

 for the future prosperity of their nation 

 realize the extent to which other raw ma- 

 terials are essential to the general well- 

 being, and for some of these we can see 

 no adequate substitutes. 



Foremost among these most useful and 

 least abundant, if not, indeed, irreplace- 

 able, commodities stands mineral oil, or 

 petroleum, and not only the conservative 

 Briton, but the most optimistic American, 

 may well ask himself, Where will my 

 children and children's children get the 

 oil that they may need in ever-increasing 

 amounts ? 



THE WORLD'S GREATEST OIL PRODUCER 

 AND CONSUMER 



The leadership of the United States as 

 an oil producer and consumer is spectac- 

 ular enough to satisfy our American love 

 of doing things on a big scale. For sixty 

 years, except in 1898 to 1901, when Rus- 

 sia reached the peak of its past petroleum 

 production, the United States has led the 

 rest of the world with its steadily increas- 

 ing flow of oil. 



But while we have contributed far 

 more than half (61 per cent) of the oil 



that the world has used in all these years, 

 we have already reached the point where 

 we are consuming more oil than we pro- 

 duce. Is this position of the world's 

 greatest user of petroleum as safe as it is 

 spectacular ? 



The story of the petroleum industry in 

 the United States extends back only sixty 

 years. On August 28, 1859, oil was struck 

 in the Drake well, near Titusville, in 

 northwestern Pennsylvania, and when 

 the pumping began the oil flowed in a tiny 

 stream of 40, and later only 15, barrels a 

 day; but since that day of small things 

 the tide of oil has mounted higher and 

 higher : 5 million barrels were produced 

 in 1870, 26 million in 1880, 45 million in 

 1890, 63 million in 1900, 209 million in 

 1910, and 356 million barrels in 1918, 

 with the output last year perhaps 20, or 

 even 30, million barrels in excess of that 

 record. The crest of this flood of oil 

 must surely soon be reached. 



A NIAGARA OE OIL 



We are the world's greatest consumers 

 of petroleum ; but, impressive as are the 

 1918 figures of consumption — 413,- 

 077,113 barrels — no mind can easily 

 grasp the idea of that quantity. Truly it 

 is a flood of oil ; for, if spread over the 

 60 square miles of the District of Colum- 

 bia, these 413 million barrels would cover 

 the area to a depth of nearly a foot and 

 a half. 



Or perhaps the eye can better visualize 

 the torrent of oil that flows each year 

 from the 203,400 wells, is pumped 

 through the long pipe lines, and is 

 brought up from Mexico in huge tankers, 

 if we figure that a year's supply of oil 

 equals the flow of the waters from the 

 Great Lakes and their vast drainage 

 basin over Niagara Falls for three hours 

 and four minutes ; or, in terms of the 



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