Taft ordered that all pub- 

 lic lands believed to contain 

 petroleum should be re- 

 served from disposition un- 

 til a law could be passed 

 that might assure an ade- 

 quate supply of fuel oil and 

 lubricating oil for our navy 

 and in some degree check 

 the wasteful overproduc- 

 tion in the rich oil fields of 

 California. Such a law is 

 now under consideration by 

 the conference committee 

 of the two Houses of Con- 

 gress. 



WHERE WE SHALE GET OUR 

 OIE IN FUTURE 



Ten years is a long 

 period for these "tempor- 

 ary" withdrawals to run 

 pending the enactment of 

 suitable legislation, and in 

 that time the country's need 

 of oil, as measured by its 

 consumption, has doubled. 

 If in 1909 our Chief Ex- 

 ecutive had reason to plan 

 the safe and sane disposal 

 of the petroleum still in 

 public ownership, in 1920 

 we surely need to look even 

 further and see if possible 

 where our children will get 

 the oil they will require in 

 increased amount. 



On the accompanying 

 map of the world (see 

 page 200) , are indicated the 

 regions from which, ac- 

 cording to present information, the oil 

 supplies of the future are to be drawn. 



The diagrammatic representation of the 

 relative abundance of the oil resources in 

 the ground in different countries is at 

 best highly speculative. Most of the other 

 countries outside of Europe have not 

 "been covered so thoroughly by geologic 

 examinations as the United States. In 

 fact, some of the oldest and most highly 

 civilized countries have not been studied 

 by geologists specially trained in the geol- 

 ogy of oil and gas, as is shown by the fact 

 that it remained for an American expert 

 to bring to the attention of the British 

 the probabilities of the occurrence of oil 

 fields in old England itself. 



•— ■- MM I 



Photograph from M. E- Alexander 



ENGINEERING EXPERTS BRINGING UNDER CONTROL A 

 "WILD WELL" IN LOUISIANA 



A glance at the map shows that outside 

 of the United States the great oil supplies 

 of the future, so far as now known, are 

 centralized mainly in the Near East, in 

 South America, and in Mexico. Accord- 

 ing to reports, there may be great reserves 

 of oil in Africa, and it is also possible 

 that eventually considerable supplies may 

 be discovered in the Far East. 



In general, the regions developed first 

 and drawn on most heavily are, of course, 

 likely to be soonest exhausted. There- 

 fore it is practically certain that, as the 

 oil resources of the United States and 

 Rumania diminish and the reserves of 

 Mexico also yield under the pressure of 

 rapidly increasing exploitation, the world 



i95 



