The United States is over-equipped with refineries, measured by their ability to obtain the necessary crude oil to operate them to capacity, but it is not over-supplied from the standpoint of the potential demand for refined products. On the first of January, 1920 there were three hundred and seventy-three refineries, with a daily capacity of 1,530,565 barrels. Since that date there have been completed ninety-nine more refineries, adding 263,500 barrels to the daily capacity. Even before the completion of these new refineries, it was estimated in the report made by the United States Geological Survey that the country had a surplus refining capacity of 177,000 barrels per day over the production and importation of crude oil. Since that time the surplus capacity has been increased to about 500,000 barrels daily. Averaging the cost of the complete refineries with those of the much less costly skimming plants, the refineries of the United States represent a total investment of about $1,795,000,000. This total includes real estate and much equipment not ordinarily associated in the public’s mind with the business of refining. There is, for instance, at several of the larger refineries valuable wharf and railroad terminal property, extensive manufacturing plants for the production of tin containers, factories for the manufacturing of steel and wooden barrels, foundries, machine shops, pattern shops, etc. As a reserve between the current daily production and the refineries’ consumption there is always above ground a stock of crude petroleum awaiting its turn to pass through the pipe lines, this stock varying greatly according to the demands of the refineries and the rate of production in the fields. In April, 1920, the crude stocks on hand totalled 124,873,000 barrels, which was worth at the prices quoted in the different fields at that time, $393,724,580. In addition, there were large quantities of refined stocks in the course of treatment at the plants. The gasoline alone reported on hand March 31st was valued at more than $125,000,000, while the kerosene on hand as of the same date was worth approximately $35,000,000. Lubricating oils, fuel and gas oil, wax, coke, asphalt, crude oil awaiting distillation and miscellaneous products on hand brought the total value of the refinery stocks up to $370,000,000. There is, of course, a very large investment in the fleets required both for bringing crude oil to the refineries in this country and for carrying finished products to the markets of the world. On January 1, 1920, there were six hundred and seventy-eight tankers engaged either in the oil business or as supply ships for the navies of the world, and of these, three hundred and ninety-four, with a deadweight tonnage of approximately 1,500,000, were under the American flag. This fleet represents an investment of $250,000,000.