Unit Operation of Oil Pool - Stabilizing Influences

Some two years ago the Petroleum Division of the A. I. M. E. organized a special study of unit operation. That method of handling oil pools had been urged as the remedy that would save the United States petroleum industry from the crisis that even then loomed as more than a small cloud on the horizon. Today it is only one of several remedies vigorously advocated. Proration, regulation of imports, unit operation, constructive marketing and interstate compacts all have their earnest proponents, but the advocates of each have been disposed to look with indifference on the other respective proposals, with the result that none has had united support. Meanwhile the industry has drifted rapidly toward a serious crisis, the imminence of which in itself may bring the solution. The gravity of the situation tends to force study of the merits of proposals that a short time previously were brushed aside as impractical; and to the surprise of most of us we now find merit where previously we thought none existed. Irrespective of what might have been the result had any single proposal being adopted years ago, it is now apparent that under present conditions no one of the remedies—unit operation, proration, regulation of imports or constructive marketing—standing alone would be of much benefit. On the other hand, it is becoming evident that a well balanced program comprising all four of these remedies might save the United States petroleum industry; also that some such comprehensive program might be necessary to save it. It is even becoming evident that the despised interstate compact might be an appropriate type of machinery in which to group and coordinate all these remedies. We have progressed beyond the belief that either the industry or the government working alone can correct the situation, and have arrived at the more healthy realization that the task will require most sympathetic cooperation between government and industry, backed by an equally sympathetic public understanding. If we were functioning under a Mussolini or a Stalin, stabilizing the petroleum industry would be a much simpler task. However, in the