As early as 1915 the government was already considering how to improve its control over an oil industry which was still very small. In his annual report for 1916 Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, then the Minister of Development, announced that the first task towards achieving this end was to set up a proper filing system from which the mining titles and all related information could be easily retrieved. He also saw the need, already suggested by the Council of State in 1914, to separate the oil industry and the coal mines from the mining industry as a whole. The present mining legislation had been drawn up as the best way to manage gold and copper mines, but the law did not adequately cover the extraction of oil. In drawing up new legislation Díaz Rodríguez stressed the need to specify the characteristics peculiar to each mining group. Moreover, the Minister alluded to the tortuous and disorganized manner in which mining titles were obtained, and the great delay caused by Congress having to approve them. It was necessary to streamline the whole procedure by allowing the Executive to award concessions without congressional approval. This did not mean that the Executive would be given a free hand because, Díaz Rodríguez argued, the award of an oil concession was merely an administrative measure since the terms of the contract were given in the law itself. As no negotiation of the terms took place, congressional approval was unnecessary because it did not increase any safeguards.