The Alaska daily empire., 1920-05-22

With the consumption of gasoline and other oduots in the United States increasing at mt ;ter rate sthan the production of crude oil fir lich all these products derived, due to ormous growth of the automobile and oi-burn erchant marine the Bureau of Mines, Departm the Interior believes that critical period me in liquid fuel the outcome of which can har forseen at this time
 The seriousness of the situation and what rel es appear are outlined in a statement issued by Tn H. Manning the retiring Director of the Bur' Mines Dr. Manning says:
 While the year 1920 began with in creasing oil production according to the Geo. logical Survey, the consumption has increased much faster that in January, February and March it necessary to take 3.373,000 barrels of crude oil from storage to meet the current needs
 In the United States the yield of the North Texas fields has apparently receded from the maximum and is now on the decline, and un- less fields are there discovered, the pro- duction for 1920 is likely to be less than for 1919. Promising fields in Louisiana have proved to be large. but not so extensive as many had anticipated.
 The consumption of all petroleum pro ducts has increased at an enormous rate During 1918 comparatively few automobiles built therefore there was not as great an increase Ill the automobiles Tn use III 1918 and 1919 in previous years. But in 1919, 1,500000 automobiles were built, which willa be in use during 1920, while the automobile industry is more active than ever before. It is, therefore to be anticipated that 1920 will prove to be year of enormous consumption of gasoline.
 The demand for kerosene continues to be active and the price of kerosene has doubled in little over a years time. The price of fuel oil has also doubled
 The U. s. Geological Survey has estimated that 40 per cent. of the oil in all the oil fields has been brought the surface and used and it is estimated that the under ground reserve is equal to less than twenty years of the present consumption demands.
 There are undoubtedly vast quantities of oil to be found abroad, as the rest of the worlds territory has not been developed nor prpspected as ilitensiyely as the United States. Large fields occur in Mexico Venezuela Col ombia, Persia Russia and potential fields known to occur in other parts of South America Africa and Asia. Of these fields, those in the Americas are nearly all under the control of Latin American governments, while the others in other continents mostly under the control of the British French and the Netherlands. with the excep- tion of fields in the former Russian Empire.
 As far as the United States is concerned, however, the most important sources of for eign supply in the Latin American coun- tries especially those bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, that is Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia Mexico con tains large quantities of oil which can be readily obtained, provided no restrictions placed upon the exploitation of those fields. Oil is present in this region sufficient to meet our needs for many years to come.
 Venezuela and Colombia have large re- sources, which, however, apparently not as great those of Mexico Also, these sources are more difficult deyplop and if will take much longer to put them on a large producing basis than those in Mexico. These are fields from which production in large quantities can be obtained few years hence, but cannot relieve the present situation
 In general it may be stated that the oil from the wells of the United States, in all probability, can not take care of our future needs, but that there is much oil in the world, and it simply is question of developing it with sufficient rapidity to keep pace with the rapidly increasing demands.
 Oil products can also be obtained by de- struotive distilation of coal, and lignites. However if ali the coal and lignites mined in tine United States were subjected to de- structive ,distillation. this would provide but comparatively small faction of our petrol cum needs.
 The oil shales of the United States par ticuarly those of the Rocky Mountain dis tricts, contain potential quantities of oil in . beds which richer than those of Scotland where siale has been retorted for many years. These shales are capable of yielding many times greater quantities of hydro-car- bons than have ever been extracted in all the oil fields of the world, according to the estimates of the Geological Survey. But this industry is in its infancy. In fact it has not yet passed1out of the experimental stage. It will take enormoss capital enormous equip ment, and enormous energy to develop the oil