The contention of the oil companies is that the oil underneath the surface to which they have a clear title is as much their property as any refinery or pipe line that they may have constructed' to move the oil to the market. In fact, the discovery of this oil, including the exploratory work and drilling of wells may have cost more than the construction of surface installations and refineries to market it. For instance. it is stated that. exploratory work in the Posa Rica field, the most important in Mexico, cost more than $20,000,000 before a barrel of oil was recovered.
It is not entirely clear to oil company executives here as to just what was included in the valuation. However, because it represented only a small fraction of the real worth of the properties, it is assumed that only the value of the properties and instellations on the surface was included. Mexico has contended for years that the sub-soil rights were vested in the government and that the oil companies had no right to attach any value to any oil in the ground that they may have discovered after the expenditure of millions of dollars.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.