Petroleum Research Work

The plan recently started for the organization of a Division of Re-search and Statistics in the American Petroleum Institute will probably shortly be consummated. It is proposed to expend $500,000 annually for this research work. The organization's work, as now outlined, pro-vides for a Technical Director, who is to be in general charge of all the work. He is to be assisted by Consulting Technical Experts, who are to be distinguished specialists in the industry and are to serve without pay. In addition, there is to be an advisory committee made up of one representative from the Bureau of Standards, Bureau of Mines, Geo-logical Survey, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engi-neers, Society of Automotive Engineers, National Automobile Chamber, of Commerce, American Society for Testing Materials, American Chem-ical Society, and the National Research Council. This committee is to meet regularly to discuss the problems of the petroleum industry. An engineer and chief economist are to assist the Director.- The econ-omist is to be in charge of statistics, economic phases of the industry, and publicity. It is the intention to centralize in the Institute all infor-mation that may be required by the States or Federal Government, which would be of value to members of the Institute. This includes prices of crude oil, refined products, and natural gas. The engineer of the division is to coordinate the research work to be undertaken by, the subdivisions of production, chemical engineering, utilization, and special research. Systematic study is to be made of the