While it is almost impossible to determine the value of oil in the ground, since it depends on location, grade and the selling price when and if it is marketed, it is safe to assume it has a value of at least 25 cents a barrel in a field already developed. In the Posa Rica field, where no pumping is necessary and the wells have a flow of several thousand barrels daily, the value is considerably higher. In other fields where the yield from a well is lower and the grade not so good, 25 cents a barrel at today's market might be a good price.
In recent years, geologists and engineers have been able to determine with a fair degree of accuracy the volume of recoverable oil in a field after a certain amount of development work. The recoverable oil in the Posa Rica field thus has been estimated at 1,000,000,000 barrels, while that in the other developed fields of Mexico has been placed at a similar figure. At 25 cents a barrel, the recoverable oil in the fields owned by the foreign-owned oil companies in this Mexico has a current value of around $500.000,000.
In 1936, the Mexican Department of Industry estimated that the capital invested in the oil industry in Mexico was 983,332,923 pesos, equivalent to about $273,000,000 at the rate of exchange then prevailing. At that time, the capital invested by the United States companies was placed at 511,333,120 pesos and that of the British-Dutch at 408,083.163. As it is understood here, this figure did not include the actual value of the properties at that time, but only the amount of money that the active companies had at that time invested in the oil industry in Mexico.
The decline in the value of the peso since the report was issued has not affected the value of the oil reserves nor the surface installations and refineries. Most all oil-well supplies and refinery equipment are, made, in the United States and must be pale for in dollars. Because of the domin. ant position of the United States in the petroleum industry and the fact that oil is an international commodly, its price also is pretty much tied to the United States dollar.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.