Abstract

Current conditions of oversupply have depressed the oil industry, curtailed exploration operations, and have created not overly promising prospects for geologists as well as others in the industry. This is a short-term situation, however, when viewed against the growth of populations and economies around the world, and the consequent projections of demand in relation to supply. These projections indicate that in the foreseeable future our current oversupply could well be reversed into a definite shortage. It is most important that the industry be left free to maintain and step up its activities to insure adequate future supplies.

A number of factors pose serious threats to the long-term prospects of the industry. Among them are (1) the continuing pressure against percentage depletion, (2) Federal controls over natural gas production, and (3) the thinly-disguised efforts of the coal industry to obtain, through government action, end-use controls over fuels.

The nature of these threats, and the implications of socialism which they contain, are of immediate concern to each of us. It therefore behooves geologists as professional people to participate personally and actively in efforts to explain and interpret the industry to consumers, public officials and others whose opinions influence the legislation under which our industry must operate. Too many in our nation have lost sight of the fact that individual enterprise has been the principal factor in the rise of this nation, and that socialism has been a dismal failure wherever it has been tried.

If each one of us, believing strongly in the dignity and worth of the individual and certain that a free competitive economy can create markets and jobs for all, will work continually in our own way to convince others of our beliefs, the results may well be astounding.