Letter of Transmittal

I take pleasure in transmitting herewith "Petroleum Development and Technology in 1927," in which we have attempted to set out in a series of 40 papers with attendant discussions the advances made in Production Engineering and Refinery Engineering during the year. The volume also contains a digest of round table discussions on Petroleum Engineering Research problems and Petroleum Engineering Education. In addition to the above we set out in 16 papers a review of production of each producing area of the United States and of the more important foreign countries, together with a review of the world's production and forecasts for 1928. We also include 8 papers on the Economics of the oil industry. The papers and discussions included herein represent the contributions of more than 200 engineers, including the foremost in each line. These papers were presented at technical sessions held in Fort Worth in October, 1927, and at the annual meeting in New York in February, 1928. We desire to express our thanks and appreciation to all those who have contributed to this volume. As in previous years, we have attempted to emphasize the value of both written and impromptu discussions. -We have made a practice of returning all impromptu discussions to the authors for correction and amplification, and because of this practice we feel that the discussions contained herein are in very presentable and readable form. It was decided by the nominat,ing committee when meeting for thc purpose of nominating officers for 1928 to eliminate the vice-chairrnanship for Transportation Engineering, as that branch of the industry seemed to come more naturally under the activities of the American Petroleum Institute. It was also decided by this committee to institute a new vice-chairmanship for Petroleum Engineering Research. Wc have had heretofore round table discussions on engineering research, but through the newly created vice-chairmanship, to which Mr. L. C. Uren was elected, we expect to have more comprehensive sessions on engineering research than heretofort.