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By Thomas Cox

This paper makes no claim to any new idea; it simply reviews the Treasury Department Regulations pertaining to the practical application of depreciation and depletion and other allowances governing taxation of oil and gas properties. Other methods may be existent, but as they may not conform to the legal status they must be discarded. In complying with the present laws governing the industry with regard to taxation and the allowable deductions therefrom, the following considerations are essential: Depletion, depreciation, amortization, other allowances, and items not, deductible. It is definitely understood that depletion is the loss or exhaustion sustained in the continuous operating of an oil and gas property, and that each unit of oil or gas taken out reduces the value of the property until its final exhaustion. Depletion applies only to the natural deposits of oil and gas due to their removal in the course of exploitation of any property. Depreciation is defined to cover the waste of assets due to exhaustion, wear and tear, and obsolescence of the physical property, and is separate and distinct from depletion; its allowance is that amount which should be set aside for the taxable year in such sums as for the useful life of the property will suffice to repay its original cost—or its value as of Mar. 1, 1913, if acquired by the taxpayer before that date—less the salvage value at the end of such useful life. Amortization is allowed for such facilities as were built or acquired on or after Apr. 6, 1917, for the production of articles contributing to the prosecution of the war and, in the case of vessels, those built and acquired after that date. The amount to be extinguished, in general, is the excess of the unextinguished or unrecovered cost of the property over its maximum value under stable post-war conditions. Claims for amortization must be unmistakably differentiated in the returns from all other claims of depreciation. The taxpayer is also required to furnish full information with the claims for amortization to the full satisfaction of the Commissioner. Further reference is directed to the specific rules and regulations for making these claims.

Jan 1, 1921

I. PRESIDING OFFICER. At all business meetings of the Institute the President, or, in his absence, the First Vice-President, or, in the absence of both of them, any other Vice-President or Director, chosen by the meeting, Shall preside. At all other meetings of the Institute the President, or, in his absence, one of the Vice-presidents, Shall preside. If none of these be present the meeting Shall elect a Chairman. The President Shall do and perform Such other duties as may from time to time be assigned to him by resolution of the Board of Directors of the Institute. IL ORDER OF BUSINESS. At each business meeting of the Institute the order of business Shall be as follows: 1. Reading of minutes of preceding meeting. 2. Report of the President. 3. Report of the Treasurer. 4. Report of the Secretary. 5. Election of Directors. 6. Reports of Standing Committees. 7. Reports of Special Committees. 8. Special Orders. 9. Miscellaneous business. This order of business may be changed at any meeting, by a vote of a majority of the Members and Associates present. At all sessions of the Institute, other than business meetings, the order of proceedings and the time of adjournment Shall rest in the discretion of the presiding officer. III. SECRETARY OF THE INSTITUTE. The Secretary Shall keep a record of the proceedings of all the meetings of the Institute. He Shall be custodian of the corporate Seal, of the minute books and of all the legal documents belonging to the Institute. He Shall have charge on behalf of the Institute of all correspondence. He Shall notify all Officers and Directors and all members of committees of their election and appointment; Shall issue notices of all meetings of the Board, and of the annual and other business meetings of the Institute; and Shall, in calling Special meetings of the Directors, Specify the objects of Such meetings. He Shall act as clerk at all the meetings of the Board of Directors and at all meetings of the Institute. The Secretary Shall be custodian of all technical or Scientific papers Submitted to the Institute for its consideration and Shall have general charge and supervision of the editing and proof-reading of all material published by the Institute, and. of the distribution thereof. The Secretary shall be the custodian of all back numbers of the Transactions and other publications of the Institute. There Shall be kept under his direction an account

Jan 1, 1925

By J. M. Flaitz, A. S. Parks

OF the various methods of sampling gas-condensate wells, a method that secures a continuous representative sample of the well stream is desirable. Such a method, consisting of a sampling tube introduced into the well tubing, has proved satisfactory. The method is sufficiently accurate for operating and engineering problems A portable testing apparatus can be used with the sampling tube to obtain data useful in studying the economic and technical aspects of the development and operation of gas-condensate properties. Introduction The recent discovery and development of gas reserves that contain hydrocarbons that condense with reduction of temperature or Pressure, or both, to form a product known as condensate, has brought many new problems to the oil and gas industries. With further discovery of deep, high-pressure fields it is presumable that many more gas fields of this type will be added to the steadily increasing number. Such gas reserves are found either associated with oil as a gas cap or in separate formations. There seems to be no positive correlation between the physical or geological nature of the reservoir, and the chemical composition or phase characteristics of its contents. Knowledge of the chemical make-up and phase behavior of gas-condensate reserves is needed to cope with many problems. A knowledge of the chemical composition and phase characteristics of the reservoir material is necessary to properly design a gasoline or recycling plant, to estimate natural gas and condensate reserves, to enable the operator to study the economic and technical aspects of various methods of operation and development, and to carry Out the plan of operating subsurface and surface lease equipment. This information is often useful in questions of mineral ownership, proration, legal position, and taxation. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss methods used by the writers to determine the chemica1 composition and phase characteristics of the fluids produced from a condensate well. The scope of the paper includes a discussion and description of the method of sampling, the results of tests on the accuracy of the sampling method, a description of a portable testing apparatus used to examine the phase characteristics, typical results of tests on wells from several condensate fields, and some of the applications of these data to production problems. References to previous work on this subject are cited at the end of the paper. The Problem At reservoir conditions of temperature and pressure, the fluids produced from a condensate well exist in a homogeneous vaporous condition. The consequent reduction of temperature and pressure that occurs as this gas enters and flows up the well tube results in condensation of some of the hydrocarbon material to form a liquid. The relative amount of liquid condensed at any point in the flowing system

Jan 1, 1942

By J. M. Flaitz, A. S. Parks

OF the various methods of sampling gas-condensate wells, a method that secures a continuous representative sample of the well stream is desirable. Such a method, consisting of a sampling tube introduced into the well tubing, has proved satisfactory. The method is sufficiently accurate for operating and engineering problems A portable testing apparatus can be used with the sampling tube to obtain data useful in studying the economic and technical aspects of the development and operation of gas-condensate properties. Introduction The recent discovery and development of gas reserves that contain hydrocarbons that condense with reduction of temperature or Pressure, or both, to form a product known as condensate, has brought many new problems to the oil and gas industries. With further discovery of deep, high-pressure fields it is presumable that many more gas fields of this type will be added to the steadily increasing number. Such gas reserves are found either associated with oil as a gas cap or in separate formations. There seems to be no positive correlation between the physical or geological nature of the reservoir, and the chemical composition or phase characteristics of its contents. Knowledge of the chemical make-up and phase behavior of gas-condensate reserves is needed to cope with many problems. A knowledge of the chemical composition and phase characteristics of the reservoir material is necessary to properly design a gasoline or recycling plant, to estimate natural gas and condensate reserves, to enable the operator to study the economic and technical aspects of various methods of operation and development, and to carry Out the plan of operating subsurface and surface lease equipment. This information is often useful in questions of mineral ownership, proration, legal position, and taxation. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss methods used by the writers to determine the chemica1 composition and phase characteristics of the fluids produced from a condensate well. The scope of the paper includes a discussion and description of the method of sampling, the results of tests on the accuracy of the sampling method, a description of a portable testing apparatus used to examine the phase characteristics, typical results of tests on wells from several condensate fields, and some of the applications of these data to production problems. References to previous work on this subject are cited at the end of the paper. The Problem At reservoir conditions of temperature and pressure, the fluids produced from a condensate well exist in a homogeneous vaporous condition. The consequent reduction of temperature and pressure that occurs as this gas enters and flows up the well tube results in condensation of some of the hydrocarbon material to form a liquid. The relative amount of liquid condensed at any point in the flowing system

Jan 1, 1942

SEVERAL distinctions can rightfully be accorded the Bagdad enterprise. For one thing, it has the most romantic name among the Porphyry Coppers and this is said with all due deference to Copper Queen and Inspiration! Bagdad was one of the richest and most magnificent cities of the glamorous world of the Arabian Nights. The record does not say who was responsible for applying the name Bagdad to the company that in 191 1 took over the property of the Arizona-Nevada Copper Company; but whoever it was must have had visions (or at least hopes) of a fabulously profitable mine. So far as I know, Bagdad is the only Porphyry whose owners, or officials, ran afoul of the law because of alleged sins of omission or commission in vending shares of the company's stock. E. B. Bronson, of New York, had been interested in Bagdad since 1909; and, during the lean period of the 1930's he had, as president of the corporation, endeavored to raise needed funds by the sale of 140,000 shares of treasury stock. Some legal questions arose as to the need for registration under the Securities and Exchange Act; but, when Mr. Bronson finally filed a registration statement, the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission found 155 "deficiencies" in the document. According to the judge who later heard the criminal case against Bronson, no evidence was introduced to show that he had personally benefited "to the extent of one dollar." However, it was charged that the setup was such that he was in position to profit if he had wanted to! A somewhat quixotic position, it would seem. In any event, he was convicted, on highly technical

Jan 1, 1957

By Henry M. Bates, Roscoe Pound

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: I accepted your Chairman's invitation to speak to a group of experts in this field with the greatest hesitation, because I know little or nothing about it. Certainly I can make no detailed suggestions, or suggest planning along very definite lines. You cannot do that sort of thing in a vacuum, and as I have suggested, my knowledge of the whole oil problem is next to nothing. It is possible that as a student of our public law, constitutional law particularly, for a number of years, I have acquired a perspective that may enable me to offer, for what they are worth, some general thoughts on these problems. I think that nothing in the whole field of law requires more definitely and clearly the functional approach than does the problem of a sound legal solution of the difficulties of the oil and gas industry. The industry is dealing with substances that are peculiar, and one must know how those substances act and what has been the history of the industry, to undertake to make anything like specific suggestions. I certainly am not qualified.

Jan 1, 1935

By Earl Oliver

This paper is based on the formula that the petroleum industry is sick—find the cause, eliminate it, and the industry will get well. There is perhaps no difference of opinion that the cause is overproduction, actual or potential. But that, again, is a result rather than a cause. The problem is to study the influences that serve to keep production and consumption out of balance. Production control is a popular theme and a natural one at this time when the whole world is unstable; but production control in its popular sense means little more than the application of emergency measures while danger threatens. Economists differ as to the effectiveness of these, most of which are designed to alleviate and not to cure, but we assume there are none who question the wisdom of promoting conditions under which economic forces are permitted to operate freely in bringing about stable conditions. The petroleum industry suffers from two classes of economic ills that serve to promote overproduction; namely, those which are common to all industries and those which are peculiar to this industry. It is of the latter I wish to speak. Strange to say, government is responsible in large part for this latter class of ills that affect the petroleum industry and we are coming to recognize that only through the assistance of government can they be corrected. Instability of the petroleunl industry, in so far as human agency was involved, had its inception in 1875 when a Pennsylvania jurist, called upon to make a decision for which there was no precedent and fancying he noted some resemblance between the so-called fugitive nature of oil and gas and that of wild game, made mention of that resemblance. Other courts being impressed by the analogy enlarged upon it, and gradually fixed upon oil and gas a legal status in certain important respects similar to that of wild game. Although later the courts abandoned this analogy, certain practices that developed out of that early concept have continued to this day and are largely responsible for the industry's present plight. Thus, instead of ownership in place that is characteristic of private property generally, the law of capture was applied to oil and gas. Now, the rapid and wasteful depletion of game

Jan 1, 1932

By D. W. Brunton

The maps of our large mines are usually prepared with the greatest care; and it is somewhat singular that, in compari~on with the great amount of time and money spent in surveying and platting, 80 little actual use is made of them. Almost the only purpose for which a completed survey-map is afterwards consulted, is the determination of the relative position of the different workings to each other, and to the boundary-lines of the property. After the completion of such a map, it should be made the beginning of another, and in most cases a far more important undertaking, namely, its utilization as a starting-point for a complete inventory of the company's underground possessions. The ordinary mine-survey map, being nothing but a record of what has been done, is, in one sense, only ancient history. To increase its value, such additions should be made as will render it a complete statement of the amount and value of ore in sight at any particular time, and a guide for future development. Comparatively little extra labor is involved in this undertaking, since the larger and most expensive part of the work has already been completed when the mine has been surveyed and mapped. The necessary additions consist in working out and platting on the maps, the geology of the mine as exposed in the workings, in such a manner that the geological survey may be of daily use in the development and operation of the mine. The first step towards the production of a geological map consists in tracing individual level-sheets from the general or composite map. The area to be included, outside of the property in question, will depend very much on local conditions; but, for geological, legal and commercial reasons, it should be extended as far as reasonably practicable. The scale to be

Jan 1, 1906

By Erwin H. Leeman, Raymond R. Rice, Gerald L. Hassler

In the past few years a great deal of preeise information has been obtained about the relation of natural gas to oil production1. The improvement of our understanding has been of great value, both in prolonging the life of wells and in providing a much needed technical background for the legal problem of proration. But there are two principal aspects of the problem of production. It is necessary to consider not only the energy available, in the form of compressed and dissolved gas and in the pressure of driving water, but also the tenacity with which the sandstone holds the oil. The amount of oil that each sand condition will produce under given conditions of gas content should be determined. Hitherto the effect of the sand has been judged by a study of the flow of each well coupled with a procedure for extrapolating the production curve; hut, as is well known to evaluation engineers, such production curves are subject to changes that are not well understood, and often are affected by outside disturbances. On the whole, the concept of "potential production" is vague principally because the influence of the sand in production is not known beyond the simple ideas of porosity and permeability. The permeability is a quantity that has only inference value where mixtures of gas and oil or of gas, oil and water are present. Excellent studies of the production of oil from reservoirs packed with unconsolidatcd sand are available2, but these studies treat largely of small-scale analogzes to a producing field, and the conclusions to be derived from them arc necessarily of a qualitative character because it is not known in what way these miniature oil fields resemble large ones.

Jan 1, 1936

By Erwin H. Leeman, Raymond R. Rice, Gerald L. Hassler

In the past few years a great deal of preeise information has been obtained about the relation of natural gas to oil production1. The improvement of our understanding has been of great value, both in prolonging the life of wells and in providing a much needed technical background for the legal problem of proration. But there are two principal aspects of the problem of production. It is necessary to consider not only the energy available, in the form of compressed and dissolved gas and in the pressure of driving water, but also the tenacity with which the sandstone holds the oil. The amount of oil that each sand condition will produce under given conditions of gas content should be determined. Hitherto the effect of the sand has been judged by a study of the flow of each well coupled with a procedure for extrapolating the production curve; hut, as is well known to evaluation engineers, such production curves are subject to changes that are not well understood, and often are affected by outside disturbances. On the whole, the concept of "potential production" is vague principally because the influence of the sand in production is not known beyond the simple ideas of porosity and permeability. The permeability is a quantity that has only inference value where mixtures of gas and oil or of gas, oil and water are present. Excellent studies of the production of oil from reservoirs packed with unconsolidatcd sand are available2, but these studies treat largely of small-scale analogzes to a producing field, and the conclusions to be derived from them arc necessarily of a qualitative character because it is not known in what way these miniature oil fields resemble large ones.

Jan 1, 1936

By AIME AIME

Council.* PRESIDENT O. THE COUNCIL. JOHN HAYS HAMMOND NEW YORK, N. Y. (Term expires February, 1909.) VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE COUNCIL. SAMUEL B. CHRISTY BERKELEY, CAL. JOHN A. CHURCH NEW YORK, N. Y. PEPSIFOR FRAZER PHILADELPHIA, PA. (Term expires February, 1909.) J. PARKE CHANNING NEW YORK, N. Y. FREDERICK W. DENTON PAINESDALE, INCH. JOHN B. FARISH DENVER, COLO. (Term expires February, 1910.)

Jan 5, 1908

By Morris M. Fine, Norwood B. Melcher

It is out of the question, at this time, to select any one prereduction process as superior to the others. It is apparent that several share a basic similarity and that within the groups listed in Part 1, the reduction vessel is sometimes the only significant variable. Claims as to the virtues of one machine over another are difficult to substantiate: one may be rapid, another thermally frugal. Based on published data, however, all seem to be performing adequately. It would appear that processes based on carbonized pellets are most applicable to foundry iron at low production rates. Adaptation to large scale manufacture of blast furnace hot metal or to agglomeration of fine concentrates at the mine site is much less likely.

Jan 8, 1966

By AIME AIME

. COUNCIL.* PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. D. W. BRUNTON DENVER, COLO. (Term expires February, 1911.) VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE COUNCIL. W. C. RALSTON SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. W. L. SAUNDERS : NEW YORK, N. Y. H. V. WINCHELL ST. PAUL, MINN. (Term expires February, 1911.) BENJAMIN B. LAWRENCE NEW YORK, N. Y. JOSEPH W. RICHARDS SOUTH BETHLEHEM, PA. ALBERT SAUVEUR CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (Term expires February, 1912.)

Apr 1, 1910

By J. M. Oblak, W. A. Owczarski

A cellular appearing recrystallization product formed by annealing a cold-worked nickel-base super-alloy at 1800°F has been studied by electron nzicroscopy. Prior to deformation, an equilibrium micro-structure of fcc matrix y and cuboidal ,,', Ni (Al, Ti), precipitates of CuzAu structure had been established by an age at 1825°F. The strain-free recrystallization cells consist of very large rodular y' particles in a y matrix. They precipitate is oriented and coherent both before and after recrystallization. The results showed that y' coarsening accompanies recrystallization at 1800°F. However, it does so as a secondary effect and does not necessarily take place at lower temperatures. The structural similarity of this reaction to cellular precipitation in other systems indicates that lattice strain may also play a significant role during some cellular precipitation reactions. THERE have been numerous microstructural investigations of recrystallization in single-phase materials but two-phase systems have received much less attention. The second phase can either remain inert or be altered along with the matrix during recrystallization. If the second phase is an oxidelm3 or a relatively inert pre~ipitate,~, recrystallization is retarded when the interparticle spacing is less than 1 p. Prior to the onset of recrystallization, these materials show a well-polygonized substructure with the subgrain size limited by the interparticle spacing. Since recrystallization by the motion of preexisting grain boundaries6 is not observed, retardation has been related to particle pinning of the subboundaries. This pinning prevents coalescence' or growth8 of subgrains to a critical size (formation of a high-angle boundary) necessary to initiate recrystallization. In a material such as a nickel-base superalloy both y matrix and y' precipitate are altered by the recrystallization reaction. Haessner et al.' studied the recrystallization of a cold-rolled Ni-Cr-A1 alloy by electron microscopy. The material was initially cold-rolled in the supersaturated condition. upon annealing at 750°C, immediate precipitation of 7'occurred. Presence of this 7' greatly retarded the onset of recrystallization which eventually took place by the development of randomly oriented, strain-free grains. The original •/ was dissolved at the recrystallization interface and reprecipitated as oriented, coherent par-tiles in the new grain. Recrystallization caused a refinement of .)' particle size. Recently ~hillips'' investigated recrystallization of Ni-12.7 at. pct Al. Reduction by cold rolling presumably elongated the p' precipitate into lamellae that remained coherent with the matrix. After recrystallization at 600" to 750°C, there was no unusual change in y' particle size al- though there was a tendency toward clustering along the prior rolling direction at 750°C. Above 750°C, the recrystallized grains were generally free of precipitate. Studies in the somewhat analogous Cu-3.23 wt pct CO" and Cu-2 wt pct'2 systems demonstrated that the coherent cobalt-rich fcc precipitate in these alloys obstructed softening, initiation, and completion of recrystallization. The precipitates were deformed into lam~llae during rolling and those of diameter less than 250A remained coherent. Recrystallization took place by the growth of new grains into the recovered or poly-gonized material. In the first study," both matrix and precipitate reoriented in the same manner upon passage of the recrystallization interface. There was no change in particle size or morphology. Tanner and ~ervi,~ on the other hand, observed that motion of the recrystallization fronts was strongly hindered by the pinning action of coherent precipitates in the deformed material. Particles in contact with a pinned boundary coarsened and coalesced leaving a denuded zone in the unrecrystallized region. When the number of pinning points was sufficiently reduced by coalescence, the boundary swept past these particles and through the denuded zone. The authors1' considered this as a variation of discontinuous precipitation with both chemical driving force and deformation strain energy contributing to recrystallization. Preliminary observations by the present authors had revealed that recrystallization in Udimet 700, a nickel-base superalloy, occurred in an entirely different manner. Optical metallography showed that the recrystallized product formed as cellular colonies containing coarse y' particles elongated in the direction of cell growth. In this investigation the structural features of this reaction were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE As-received I$-in. rounds of Udimet 700* were (wtpct) 18.4 15.2 4.95 4.42 3.43 0.06 0.031 0.14 Bal. solution-annealed for 4 hr at 2150" and then fast air-cooled. An initial y-~' structure was established by a 4-hr age at 1825°F followed by a fast air,cool. Essentially the equilibrium volume fraction of ?' at 1825°F is precipitated within 4 hr. Microstructural examination showed no measurable increase in the amount of precipitate after longer aging times. Deformation consisted of swaging to 52 pct RA with 6 pct reduction per pass at room temperature. To reduce the precipitation potential to a negligible amount, recrystallization anneals were conducted at 1800"~ (982"~). Microstructures were investigated by optical and transmission electron microscopy. To prepare foils for electron microscopy, the material was first sliced into 30-mil slabs parallel to the swaging direction. Discs were dimpled and electrolytically cut from

Jan 1, 1969

By AIME AIME

COUNCIL.* PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. JAMES F. KEMP : NEW YORK, N. Y. (Term expires February, 1913.) VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE COUNCIL. S. B. CHRISTY BERKELEY, CAL. W. A. LATHROP PHILADELPHIA, PA. GARDNER F. WILLIAMS WASHINGTON, D. C. (Term expires February, 1913.) KARL EILERS NEW YORK, N. Y. WALDEMAR LINDGREN WASHINGTON, D. C. BENJAMIN B. THAYER NEW YORK, N. Y. (Term expires February, 1914.)

Apr 1, 1912

By Samuel S. Wyer

Discussion of the paper of SAMUEL S. WYER, presented at the New York meeting February, 1916, and printed in Bulletin No. 110, February, 1916, pp. 263 to 279. DAVID T. DAY, Washington, D. C.-I would like to ask whether the court decisions quoted in the paper are general, or do they represent one side of the case; if so, are there any decisions that represent more than one side of the case? Are they of general application, or do they affect only one side? Also, what is the difference between a pump and a compressor from the standpoint of the natural-gas industry? I notice stress is laid on the word "pump" in. connection with some of the legal decisions, and then it is stated. that they must not pump or compress above 300 lb. The question is, is a pump a compressor and a compressor a pump, under certain conditions? SAMUEL S. WYER, Columbus, Ohio.-Answering the first question, I will say that the decisions cover both sides of the case very thoroughly, and are uniformly on the side that a company is justified in the use of gas compressors; in other words, there are no decisions holding it to be illegal to use gas compressors, with the exception noted in Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma where you cannot go below atmospheric pressure. In regard to the second question, I think the engineers and the gas operators themselves are responsible for the confusion. It is because the use of the term "pump" is almost universal, and so many people have obtained the idea that the primary function of a gas compressor is to pump air into the gas, in order to increase the consumers' gas bills. I appreciate that it is very hard to draw a clear line of demarcation. between a pump and a compressor. The distinction I have always made myself, and which I think is a logical one, is that you do not get the pumping action until you get below atmospheric pressure. As far as the compression end is concerned, there is only one State, namely, Indiana, that has any statutory limitation with regard to how high the pressure may be increased in order to put the gas into the transmission lines. The State law in Indiana limits the maximum pressure to 300 lb. per square inch.

Jan 5, 1916

By T. C. Mendenhall

All persons, actively engaged in your profession, must have a natural interest in the subject of weights and measures. All members of the engineering profession have to do with operations of weighing and measuring—some with measuring more than weighing, and some with weighing more than measuring—but all with both of these processes to a greater or less degree. Methods of weighing and measuring have improved constantly from the earliest times and have kept pace with the advance of other technical processes. It is, therefore, believed that you will be interested in a few remarks concerning some of the more recent advances in relation to the establishment of decimal standards of length and mass in this country. Before speaking of this, I will refer very briefly to some facts which may not be very generally known regarding our customary system of weights and measures. Although the yard is universally accepted as the unit of length, and the pound as the unit of mass, it is not generally understood, I believe, just in what respect the yard is the unit of length, or the pound the unit of mass. That is to say, it is not generally known in what degree these units have been legalized by Acts of congress. Doubtless, many of you are familiar with the facts which I will briefly recapitulate. The Constitution of the United States authorizes Congress to establish a system of weights, measures and coinage. The establishment of a system of coinage, as you know, was one of the first acts of the government, and the system then adopted is certainly one of the most perfect, if not the most perfect, that the world has yet seen. But, although Congress had the power to establish a system of weights and measures, it has never yet seen fit to exercise this power; that is to say, Congress has never yet

Jan 1, 1890

By H. D. Hagen, C. E. Nelson

14.1-1. Coal Mining. CORPORATE STRUCTURE. Most coal companies that operate surface mines had their beginnings as basically one-man organizations, with all decisions and controls in the hands of the founder. At the early stage of the company development, it is usually quite possible for one man to handle all management functions as the mining operations generally are quite localized and the founder can have a first-hand knowledge of all facets of the operation. However, with continued growth, the entrepreneur finds that he must limit himself more and more to the top level of management and delegate the day-to-day operation to others. An organization must be developed that provides not only for current operations but also for continued growth of the company through acquisition of coal reserves in market areas that the company desires to serve. In general, a successful coal company engaged in surface mining must develop an organization consisting of the following departments or divisions: operations, sales, engineering, exploration, land, purchasing, financial, and legal. Of course, all of these departments are not required in the beginning. When the company is small, there is much overlapping of functions. For instance, the operating department will handle purchases and the engineering department will also handle exploration and land functions. A growing surface-mining company has generally evolved through the various stages of development into an organization that is typical of large mining companies. An examination of a typical company and its various departments and their functions should give an insight into the organizational trends of surface mining companies. Having begun as a typical one-man organization, a company of today can be highly centralized, with firm control of all phases of the company's operations in the executive offices. This is achieved by having all department heads (Fig. 14.1-I), as well as the senior management, based in central offices.

Jan 1, 1968

By William H. Shockley

THERE was an, extensive mining and industrial exploitation of Russia, about 20 years ago, by Belgian, French and British capitalists; but the results were discouraging. It is said that the Belgian and French public together lost approximately $400,000,000, chiefly in the coal and iron industry of southern Russia. This loss is largely accounted for by the fact that most of the companies were formed, as usual in " boom " times, to sell stock; and that thorough investigations were not made. In 1906, renewed interest was taken in Russian mines, especially in those of gold and copper, and a considerable literature is growing on this subject; but as yet I have seen no account of one of the large Russian mining estates. The following notes on such property, where the conditions are so different from those in the mining regions of the United States, should be of interest This inadequate and probably somewhat inaccurate account is made up, partly from my own notes made on the ground, in the summers of 1904 and 1905, and partly from a volume on the geology and resources of the estate issued several years ago, containing surface-and mine-maps, and from a pamphlet published in 1904, giving a general account of the condition and prospects of the property. This pamphlet includes a report made by Arthur L. Pearse, a member of this Institute, in 1899. Both these books are in Russian, and were prepared by the Bogoslovsk Mining Co., which owns and operates the property. Articles in many other languages have appeared dealing with various matters connected with the estate; but I know of no other general account of it. In numerous books and articles on the Urals and Siberia, however, localities are described in which somewhat similar conditions prevail. Recent papers by

Mar 1, 1908

By J. S. Levine, M. Prats

Several methods are available for calculating the performance of solution-gas-drive reservoirs from the PVT properties of the oil and from the relative permeability and other properties of the formation. These methods require a number of simplifying assumptions. The present method of computation has made use of a high-speed computer to solve simultaneously the nonlinear partial differential equations that describe two-phase flow by solution-gas drive in order to calculate the performance of a reservoir. Some of the results obtained by the nonlinear partial differential equation solution are compared with those obtained with an approximate method, which has been called the semisteady-state solution. The pressure and saturation profiles from the wellbore to outer boundary calculated by the two methods are compared for one constant-terminal-rate case and two constant-teminal-pressure cases. The agreement in these profiles, as well as in the values of average reservoir pressure and cumulative recovery, leads to the conclusion that, for most engineering calculations, the semisteady-state method will give a reasonable approximation to the numerical solution of the differential equations describing solution-gas drive. An unfavorable (as regards ultimate oil production) set of relative permeability curves was used in the calculations in the belief that the effect of the parameters which were studied would be emphasized to a greater degree. Furthermore, the reservoir was assumed to be completely homogeneous, and these results should not be considered applicable to any other type of reservoir. Gravity effects are not considered. The absolute permeability was varied from 25 to 0.5 md. At an economic limit of 2 B/D, the recovery for a 25-md reservoir is about 1.8 times as great as that for a 0.5-md reservoir. The effect of permeability on the producing gas-oil ratio is minor. Once PVT properties of the oil and the relative penneability properties of the reservoir are fixed, the pro- during gas-oil ratio is found to be a function of the fraction of oil recovered. Well spacings of 10, 40 and 80 acres were considered. For the assumed homogeneous-reservoir properties, the effect of spacing on recovery at an economic limit of 2 B/D was very slight. Certain dimensionless groups can be used to extend the results to other fields having different penneabilities, spacings, reservoir thicknesses, well radii and porosities, so long as the PVT and relative permeability properties are similar to those used in this paper. INTRODUCTION An important aspect of reservoir engineering is the prediction of the performance of the reservoir based on the limited information normally available early in the life of a field. Usually, soon after a field has been discovered, it is necessary to decide upon the spacing to be employed and the production program to be used for most efficient utilization of reservoir energy. Where these decisions have not been dictated by legal or political considerations, they have frequently been based on experience factors which indicate that two fields with similar characteristics will probably have similar performances. To the extent that the industry has been successful in economically exploiting oil reservoirs, this rule-of-thumb method has been found to have merit. A large amount of theory has been developed with which it is possible to predict the performance of a reservoir by using certain known properties of the oil and the formation. Because of the difficulties of the mathematics involved for a drainage area having square or rectangular boundaries, the problem usually has been simplified and idealized by assuming each drainage area to have radial symmetry and the field to be represented by a number of these drainage areas. Muskatl was one of the first to formulate the theory for two-phase flow and to solve the equations for a few cases by numerical integration, using the relatively slow means of computing available at that time. His equations describing