The minor phases of oil marketing are represented by the multitude of stations, warehouses, bulk barges, tugs, motor trucks and tank wagons, tank cars, private railroad sidings, storage tanks, etc. in all parts of the United States. It is customary to allow an investment of $4.00 per barrel for the real estate and equipment needed to do a retail marketing business, and $1.00 per barrel for the tanks and docks required in the fuel oil department. On this basis the domestic marketing equipment for the country represents a total investment of approximately $660,000,000. No attempt has been made here to bring in the investment by American oil companies in other lands. The principal item under this head is, of course, the huge sums that have been expended in drilling and the acquisition of producing properties, leases for development and for surveys, etc., in Canada, Mexico, South America, Roumania, and other countries. The value of the tankers used for foreign service has been estimated but no allowance is included for stations and other equipment to handle petroleum products abroad. We have here an aggregate investment in the production, transportation, refining, and distribution of petroleum and its products of $7,310,000,000. With this equipment, the United States last year produced 377,000,000 barrels of crude oil from within its borders and imported 55,000,000 barrels more, chiefly from Mexico. We exported 366,000,000 gallons of gasoline, 965,000,000 gallons of kerosene, 1,175,000,000 gallons of gas and fuel oil and 276,000,000 gallons of lubricating oil. Against that may be set our domestic consumption, showing that while we produced in this country more than two-thirds of all of the world’s petroleum, we consume in almost the same ratio. There was marketed in the United States last year 3,426,000,000 gallons of gasoline, 1,397,000,000 gallons of kerosene, 6,290,000,000 gallons of gas and fuel oil, and 568,000,000 gallons of lubricating oil. These figures show not only the immensity of the oil industry but also make clear the vast extent and variety of the auxiliary investment it calls for. Clearly it is no speculator’s game, but one in which the most expert knowledge and economic discretion are entailed if it is to yield profits at all. CHAPTER XIV PETROLEUM IN THE FUTURE In these chapters an effort has been made to place before the reader the story of the development of petroleum from a negligible and unappreciated product to its present basic and essential position in the world’s industrial and economic structure. Having attempted to portray the part it plays in the arts of war and peace, and its intimate relation to civilization as now organized, it is fitting that something should be said as to the future of petroleum.