being 195,288,000,000 cubic feet, and its consumption 
80,000,000,000 cubic feet, the surplus being exported to 
other States, the Pittsburgh area taking the most of it. 
Oklahoma produces 140,631,000,000 cubic feet of gas, and 
uses 111,681,000,000 cubic feet. California produces 
84,580,000,000 cubic feet and uses it all. The total pro- 
duction of natural gas per year is approximately 762.546.- 
000.000 cubic feet. 
THE HAZARDS OF OIL 
In his talk on “The Hazards of Finding and Producing 
Dil,” at the St. Louis meeting of the American Petroleum 
[nstitute in December, 1923, E. W. Marland stated that 
“In times of overproduction such as now, we are inclined 
to consider lightly the estimates made two years ago by the 
United States Geological Survey that the remaining oil con- 
tent of the United States is approximately 9,000,000,000 
bbls.” Mr. Marland also pointed out that if no new wells 
were drilled for 60 days the decline of the present wells 
would eliminate the entire overproduction. Furthermore, 
that to maintain our production on the same basis as in 
1928 enough new wells must be drilled in 1924 to produce 
at least 1.000.000 bbls. a dav. 
On June 1, 1923, the daily production of crude oil in 
the United States was rapidly increasing. On December 1, 
it was decreasing with equal rapidity. During the six 
months from June 1 to December 1, the average daily pro- 
duction of crude was approximately 2,220,000 bbls. per day. 
The rapid decline in production stopped about January 1 
and since that date production has averaged about 1,900,000 
bbls. per day. This decline in production (about 15 per cent 
rom the peak of last summer) has made no shortage of 
sil—we still have an oversupply. particularly in California. 
THE FUTURE OF OIL 
] Regarding the future of petroleum, the Standard Oil 
Company has recently issued an official bulletin which is