Petroleum in the United StatesSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 52, No. 6 (Jun., 1941), p. 533Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/17258 .

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ANT MOUNDS IN SUMMER WOODS 533

FIG. 6. ANT MOUNDS CROWD CLOSE TOGETHER TO ENJOY THE SU-N WHERE THE WIND HAS THROWN SOME TREES IN THE PINE WOODS.

in the sun, not only for one, but for sev- eral mounds close together. Thus a pre- ferred region may counrt hundreds of mounds, formning a city or state; mounds

dying away here and new ones arising there, shifting the center of population, but ants living on in the sanme general region indefinitely.

PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED STATES To aii unprecedented degree, petroleum has

become an essential in the waging of war. The position of the industry, as to production,

distribution and resources, and its capacity to expand and enlarge its ser vices are of utnmost consequence at this time. Tn 1940, production of crude oil in the tUnited States was 1,351,847,- 000 barrels. This piroduction was 63 per cent. of the estimated world's total, and 23 times the total productiont of the Axis nations. It canme from 392,268 producing wells, of which 19,773 were completed clurinig the year. Knowni oil reserves in the UJnited States approximate 19,000,000,000 batrrels, and the national inven- tory of petroleumr products as of December 31, 1940, was 563,594,000 barrels.

Total transportation facilities included 316,- 000 miles of crude oil, gasoline and gas pipe lines; 146,000 tank cars; 140,000 trucks (all

kinds) ; and over 400 marine tankers of 2,770,- 000 gross tonnage. Refineries in the United States having combined capacity of 4,181,000 barrels of crude oil daily were operating at the end of 1940, with additional capacity of 680,000 barrels daily shut down or building. In addi- tion, cracking plant capacities capable of turn- ing out 1,021,000 barrels per day of cracked gasoline wvere operating, with 130,000 barrels capacity shuit downvi or building.

From the foregoing it is clear that as far as any probable nationial emergenicy is conicerned the American oil inldustry is preparedl. About an ample supply of crude oil to meet such emer- gency, there need be no concern. Tr ansporta- tion of crude from oil fields to refineries offers no problem. Manufacturing and distribution facilities are adequate to all needs, military and civil.-Standard Oil Btllectini, April, 1941.

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