Add to this for crude wasted en route, and consumed in the country, the amount of the crude shipped, which accords with the estimates of well-informed parties, 231,079 barrels, and we have the following figures:

Refined, 1,255,293 barrels.
Add duties paid...

Total value...

Crude, 462,158 barrels....

Approx. value.

$32,638,873

2,507,453

35,146,326

$7,729,130

The total value of crude and refined was $42,875,456. The value of that exported, crude and refined, was $18,574,499. These values are obtained by taking the average price of crude and the average price of free refined in New York for the year.

The total of crude oil thus accounted for, for the year, is 2,135,880 barrels, being a daily product for 313 working days of 6,823 barrels. No allowance is made for the increase of stock on hand, of which we have no reliable estimate.

The following is an approximate statement of the oil transported from the Pennsylvania oil region by three routes, in 1864, of which part was refined:

The proportions of the different products exported, excepting residuum, are as follows:

According to Mr. Heinlein, crude, 18.41 per cent; refined, 78.41 per cent.; naphtha, 318 per cent. According to Messrs. Eagle & Blakslee, crude, 19.97 per cent.; refined, 76.68 per cent.; naphtha, 3.35 per cent.

The average of the two is: crude, 19.19; refined, 77.54 ; and naphtha, 3.26; or, in round figures, crude, 19 per cent.; refined, 78 per cent; residuum, 3 per

cent.

For this calculation we take Mr. Heinlein's figures, which are fuller, but not materially different from, and are confirmed by, those of Messrs. Eagle & Blaklee.

The exports for 1865, leaving out residuum and naphtha, were of crude, 136,709 barrels; of refined, 582,191 barrels, in the manufacture of which there were used 778,255 barrels of crude.

The amount of the products and their values is as follows:

Refined.....

Barrels.

1,746.167

136,709

200,0.0

262,000

2,344,874

The value of the oil and oil products exported was $14,149,348.

33, 635, 691 9, 280, 183 474, 794

18, 956

43, 409, 624

The total of crude oil thus accounted for, for the year, is 2,344,876 barrels, being a daily product of 7,491 barrels.

The following is an approximate statement of the number of barrels of oil refined, included, transported from the Pennsylvania oil regions in 1865 :

By Atlantic and Great Western railroad....

By Oil Creek and Pennsylvania and Eastern railroad, estimated...
By Alleghany river...

Barrels.

750,000

400,000

689, 000

1, 839, 000

Add three gallons per barrel for increased size of barrels, owing in part to the forty-five-gallon limitation in the law, and we have for the number of barrels of forty gallons each

Transported by three routes.
Excess of stocks in oil regions.

Total....

Barrels. 1, 976, 925

105, 000

2,081, 925

This estimate does not include the consumption for the year in the oil region. The commission have been furnished by the Hon E. A. Rollins, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the following interesting table, showing the collections on account of the excise duty upon crude oil, of one dollar per barrel, by congressional districts, and for each of the six months from June 30, 1865, to January 1, 1866. The aggregate of collections for the six months is $1,046,914. The increase from month to month, with other information, shows that the tax was not fully collected. We will assume the proportion escaping taxation to be fifteen per cent. Our information warrants the inference that the proportion was greater. Add fifteen per cent., 157,037 barrels, to the 1,046,914 barrels paying the tax, and three gallons per barrel for excess over forty

gallons, and we have for six months 1,294,247 barrels, or an average production per day of 8,270 barrels. Allow the same daily average for May and June, and we have 431,415 barrels as the product of those months. For the preceding four months we take the average between the daily production of 1864 of 6,823 barrels, and the estimated daily yield immediately before the dis coveries in Pit-hole creek, 4,000 barrels per day. That average is 5,411, and gives as the production from January 1 to May 1, 1865, an aggregate of 564,547 barrels. The total production thus obtained for the year 1865 will be 2,290,209 barrels. The mean between that sum and the sum obtained by the first process, 2,317,542 the commission adopt as their estimate.

PRESENT DAILY PRODUCTION OF PETROLEUM.

The average number of barrels paid on for the months of November and December, with the fifteen per cent. added, gives a daily production of 10,064 barrels. If we add 19.36 per cent. for the amount consumed as fuel, waste at the wells, and loss by evaporation, the present yield may be stated approximately at 12,000 barrels per day, which agrees with the opinion of most of the judicious observers who have reported to the commission the results of observations made on the ground. The tax has been paid on a few barrels in Missouri and California. The table also confirms the statements respecting the small yield in West Virginia and Kentucky. These data warrant the following esti

The commission have been at a loss to obtain reliable data from West Virginia and Kentucky, and have been necessarily governed by the amount of tax collected. They have information of about 5,000 barrels of crude in the tanks in Kentucky, which they have also taken into the account. Their conclusion agrees with the estimates of the largest and best informed of the Pittsburg refiners. They, however, think it not improbable that a very large increase of production may take place in these two States.

FUTURE SUPPLY,

Should Congress repeal the duty upon crude petroleum, the production will probably be increased as herein before estimated. How long the present production will continue, is purely matter of surmise; but, from present appearances, and considering the permanent character of the wells in Asia, it seems reasonable to suppose that it will always be sufficient for the wants of this country.

Should it, however, come to an end, an ample and permanent supply of oil will be obtained, but at higher prices, from the shales and rich bituminous coals which are found in almost all parts of the United States, and in the greatest abundance.

Without going into the details of the calculation, the commission give it as their opinion that the consumption of refined petroleum will increase rapidly in the United States, particularly in the southern States; and that if the duty upon crude should be abolished, the revenue from refined, at twenty cents per gallon, may be expected to amount to six millions of dollars per annum.

The commission decline to recommend any change in the duty upon naphtha, as at present advised, as difficulties in collection of the tax, and fraudulent evasions, might result from different duties upon that article and upon illuminating oil.

They submit herewith the form of a bill, in accordance with the recommendations made by them in the foregoing report.

mission.

Respectfully submitted by order of and for the United States Revenue ComS. S. HAYES, Chairman Special Committee.

Hon. HUGH MCCULLOCH,

Secretary of the Treasury.

A BILL for an act relative to duties on petroleum.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act the duty now required by law to be levied, collected, and paid upon crude petroleum shall be and the same is hereby abolished, and that so much of the act of March 3, 1865, amending an act entitled "An act to provide internal revenue to support the government, to pay interest on the public debt, and for other purposes," approved June 30, 1865, as imposes a duty upon crude petroleum, be and the same is hereby repealed

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all other duties by said act of March 3, 1965, provided to be levied upon coal illuminating oil, refined, and naphtha, distillate, benzine, and benzole, produced by the distillation of coal, asphaltum, shale, peat, petroleum, or rock oil, and all other bituminous substances, and upon gasoline, be and the same are hereby continued in force.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted. That the mode of assessing and collecting, and the form and manner of making returns of the duties accruing upon said refined oils and other products mentioned in the second section of this act, shall be and continue as heretofore provided by law: Provided, however, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall be and he is hereby authorized to appoint special inspectors of oil refineries, and to make general regulations for the more certain collection of said duties.

0