The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-10-17
The Price of Gasoline.

To the Editor of The Republic:-
Our supplies of the good grades of
gasoline, illuminating oil, naptha,
ETC., are manufactured mostly from
the crude petroleum produced in
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indi-
ana, Ohio, Illinois,, Oklahoma,
Northwestern Louisiana (Caddo)
and North Texas. The crude from
these States and regions is referred
to as light oil,' to distinguish it
from the heavy crudes of Texas.
Louisiana and California, which are
used mainly for fuel, although they
do contain certain percentage of
gasoline and other more or less valu-
able by products. But the light
oils or Illuminating oil and to these
the retiners must look for the bulk
of their supplies.
Our consumption of gasoline and
similar products has grown so enor-
duced more crude oil in the United
States in 1911 than ever before in
a single year the output of light
crudes' has not been sufficient to
keep pace with the demand for the
refined products. The result has
been that the refners-principall
the Standard-have been compelled
during the past fifteen months to
draw on their reserve stocks of
light crudes" to the extent Of more
than 100000 barrels, or over
100000 barrels a month
What this drain on reserve sup
plies of flight crudes'' means to the
refiners you can understand when |
tell you that the total reserve stock
Of light crudes" held by the big
companies over the whole United
States is to-day less than SO,00O,00O
barrels. A year ago last July these
reserves amounted to 100000. If
we continue to draw upon our re-
serve stock at the rate maintained
the past fifteen months it will re-
quire only little more than five
years to exhaust our reserves. The
quantity of gasoline and other high
grade products which we can manu-
facture will then be limited to the
amount of such products which we
can manufacture from the current
production of light crudes.
The development of tremendous
new sources of light crude sup
My would, OF course, da:lJ the eA-
haussion Of the reserve stocks, but
the impression is strong through
out the oil industry thatwe will not
find enough new oil to stay the drain
on stocks. The article on "The Flu
ture Oil Supply of the United States"
by Lee Hager, in the September
number of the Fuel Oil Journal,
covered in detail the prospects of
further light crude supply and con-
cluded with the prediction that with
in a comparatively few years we
shall have to depend upon oil-bear-
ing shales for our supply of light
crudes.
Authorities on oil supply are
agreed that the crude oil engine,
which is adapted to the use of any
grade of petroleum from kerosene to
crude oil will take the place of the
gasoline motor in many important
fields and industries, and this will
be brought about by the necessity
of using a cheaper product than
gasoline. Automobile manufacture
ers are already experimenting with
the oil engine, looking forward to
the day when only the rich can af-
ford to use gasoline.
AS result of the growing short
age in supply of light crudes there |
has been considerable advance in
the price paid for these grades at |
the wells. For instance, Pennsyl-s
vania crude last December was quot
ed at 1.3O a barrel st the wells. 1T
iC now 81 go to @1.70 . barrel at the