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Q
il 4 PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
  Major emphasis is given, however, to the primary producing
activities, for which additional data could be developed as
_ byproducts of the log; census.B Other branches — for which
data are less comprehensive — are given relatively less at-
tention. Marketing is considered only briefly in presenting
a perspective of over-all activity and employment.?
In establishing the frontiers of tne inquiry it should
l also be noted that the corporate structure of the industry
Q has little importance in a study of the amount of labor re-
} quired for the various operations. Although, as in many other
i branches of mining, the large integrated company is dominant
and probably at least two-thirds of the aggregate business
A is now controlled by some zo large corporations whose oper-
ations extend from the wells to an extensive corps of service
stations,1@ petroleum and natural—gas production is essentially
A an industry of many thousands of individual units (see fig-
, ure 2), which in 1935 numbered 341,000 oil wells, 54,ooo "dry"—
j gas wells, about 194,000 miles of oil, gasoline, and natural-
j gas pipe lines, approximately noo tank steamships,*l 3g;
i
g Table 1.- PRODUCTION AND VALUE OF THE MAJOR PRODUCTS OF
_ Q THE PETROLEUM AND GAS INDUSTRY. 1987a
Value at wells
V Product Quantity produced Or Plant
. Crude oil 1,279,160,000 bbl. $l,5l3,340,000
A Natural gash 2,447,620,000 M cu. ft. l23,457,000
Z Natural gasoline 2,065,434,000 gal. 97,125,000
Refined products l,lB3,440,000 bbl·C 2,546,746,000
aAdapted from data of the U. S. Bureau of the Census and the U. S. Bureau of Hines.
{ Dmarketed production and corresponding value; data are preliminary and subject
, to revision.
. CRepresents quantity of crude oil run to stills.
8?anducted jointly oy the U. S. Bureau of Mines and the U. S. Bureau of the Census.
gwhile the importance of marketing to total employment in the industry is recog-
nized, adequate discussion of this point would require a more solid factual basis
; than is available at present. Moreover, certain business considerations, such
1 as the nature of competitive practice in retailing petroleum products, appear as
{ important factors affecting employment in marketing. This suggests that the
‘ subject can be treated more effectively as a separate study of employment in
wholesale and retail trade rather than as part of a report concerned with the
effects of changing physical conditions of operation and of changing technology
upon employment in production.
. ICG. w. Stocking, ¤0il lndustry," Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (New York;
The Macmillan Co., 1933). Xl. 443-4.
l1Amer1can Petroleum Institute, Petroleum Facts and Figures (5th ed.; New York;
1937). u. 145.