O'CONNOR JR., LAWRENCE J., ADMINISTRATOR, OIL IMPORT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
It is a pleasure and honor to be with you today. I do not come to this meeting as a stranger to the American Institute of Mining Engineers because a large portion of my adult life has been spent in professional and personal contact with the members of AIME's Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Secretary of the Interior Udall has asked me to convey his personal greetings to you. Secretary Udall is new in the Department of the Interior, but let me assure you that his interest in the energy problems of the United States is far from newly acquired. Since he has assumed his new post, he has taken an active and vigorous interest in the oil problems of the Nation.
Also, I wish to extend to you the best wishes of John M. Kelly, a member of AIME, who has been recently nominated by President Kennedy to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Mineral Resources. Mr. Kelly is a professional petroleum engineer, and, in accepting this new responsibility, will bring a broad background of knowledge of oil and fuel problems to the post.
The Department of the Interior, through Secretary Udall, is the principal petroleum policy making body in our Federal Government—it is the agency of executive responsibility which devotes more time, effort, and thought to our complex national fuels problems than any other body in Washington.
The Department takes an active interest in all phases of oil—from the first shot of the seismographic crews to the ultimate delivery to the home and automobile of the Nation's consumers. And, the Department, through my office, the Oil Import Administration, has primary operational control over the flow of imports of petroleum and petroleum products into the United States from all other petroleum producing areas of the world.
