Significant figures bubbled up from oil-rich Texas to show how the independent oilmen are being frozen out of the oil industry, with the result that the number of new "wildcat" wells has power-dived to an alarming low. Example: Harold Ickes, petroleum arbiter, pleaded for 4,500 wildcats this year. So far Texas operators have sunk a mere 233, bringing in only 1 8 oil wells.
Independents and wildcats are corded together like Siamese twins. Normally the independents sink 75% of the wildcats, do most of the probing for new oil fields to replace those sucked dry by an oil-burning world. At...
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