The fuel industry is one of the leading branches of heavy industry. A rapid increase in fuel output is a necessary condition for high rates of development of the national economy as a whole. The major trends in technological progress - electrification, mechanization and the extension of chemical processes - are inextricably involved with the increase in fuel consumption. The target figures for the development of the USSR economy from 1959 to 1965 envisage an increase in the extraction and production of the major forms of fuel as follows: petroleum - to 230-240 million tons, or an increase of more than 100% over 1958; gas - to 150 billion cu. m. or fivefold; coal - to 600-612 million tons, or to a level from 21% to 23% higher than in 1958.