OILFIELDS AT SEA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18234, 19 November 1924, Page 14

OILFIELDS AT SEA.

WONDERS OF GULF OF MEXICO. TWO NOTED OCEAN AREAS. Vessels from the Gulf of Mexico bring to New York every now and then reports of a petroleum area in the fiuJf itself, mid the observation of years indicates that to the treasure in sunken ships there must be added submarine oilfields, if one is to attempt au estimate of the world's submerged wealth. Possibly, in time, the question of the fn-edom of tho seas, or jurisdiction in the three-mile limits or twelve-mile zones, may come to include control over marine trushers, declares the "New York Times.'' At present this sea oilheld, whether large or small, is not regarded as practicable. There is ample proof of the existence of oil under the gulf, however, and the Government's hydrographic charts of currents show an elliptical area, 150 miles or so at its widest, enclosed in a dotted line on tho chart labeled "oilfield."

This field lies south-east of Galvestoh, more than 200 miles off the coast., and the axis of tho zone runs close to tho thousand-fathom curve of the gulf's floor. Six thousand feet is considerably more than a mile deeper than a practical diving depth; it is likely that oil will btcome much scarcer than it is now before any reputable cenius will turn to devising ways to cet at this supply. How much might he developed by working the bottom of the sea there is no telling, but experience in the development of land wells indicates that the supply which oozes out without drilling is not of much account. Ileal progress calls for well sinking. Oil has been sighted elsewhere in the gulf, but the so-called oilfield is comparatively constant. The surface indications have been observed by many passing ships through many years, and in various sorts of weather. let if vessels 150 miles apart report surface oil on the same day, and other vessels in between them, it does not necessarily mean that oil is leaking up over that whole area. ~ "The action of the waves would spread the oil, which forms a film that bas virtually no thickness," says J. H. Hall, of Texas, who has oil interests on the landward side of the eulf. "One small seepage might account for the oil seen on the water; one so bttle that it would scarcely be noticed, on land. The oil might rise, not in a column, but in bubbles. It might come up now from one place and now another, as the wave action closed up the sand on the floor of the gulf. ' _ In the early days of petroleum in Pennsylvania, farmers sometimes found oil seeping to the surface of broods. In at least on 3 instance a brook was dammed and the oil skimmed off, yielding a few barrels a year. Modern exgineering has gone little further m recovering oil from water. Sumps have been filled by rain, and expensive dehydrating plants have been installed to recover the oil, but according to engineers the results have not been notably successful. Once a Mexican well ran wild into a creek bed. The stream was dammed and strained, but again flie proportion of recovery "was small. There are other signs of oil under the Gulf of Mexico than this field indicated on the charts. There is no question that this oil is petroleum produced hy Nature, and not merely waste oil from ships cleaning up, or jettisoning fuel for one reason or another— a practice which has caused considerable trouble to Bhiuping in and near harbours- and which, has been _ brought under regulation with the increased use of oil as fuel. „.*- Close to the Texas shore there are two sea areas reputed to fee controlled by oil. No oil has ever been seen there, however; its presence is surmised from the constant tranquillity of the waters, which ftre relatively smooth, even during storms, and so are havens for coasting craft in rough weather. These two spots are small; they are oval in shape and) each is ilesa than a mile across at the widest. They; are known as the old pond, and the new, and the more western shifted its position in a big storm in 1878. The fact that the sea never breaks over them, and the presumption that oil ia ♦he cause of their tranquillity, has made these spots famous m seamen s treatises on the use of oil to quiet •waters during-a storm, a practice mentioned in the Bible and often followed to-day. It has been, suggested that the quiet of these spots la due to the disturbance by waves of thick, mud, composed largely of animal and vegetable remains: but the presence or such mud under more troubled water areas raises an objection. , ~ Another, indication or ou under the eulf is the more or lesa frequent discovery of a substance known popularly as seawax. It is found' on the beach from Sabine to Corpus Ohristi; _ cakes six or eight feet across- and two mchea thick, with traces of a concentric formation, indicating that they have been, formed by spreading out from a central point of seepage. Chemical analysis has shown that sea wax ia a petroleum residuum, or asphaltum. There is a large tranquil area in tihe north central portion of the gulf known as the Central Sea; the water from the Mississippi - seems to pass 'through or over the water of the Gulf Stream, being collected and held in a circular motion and forming a small Sargasso Sea. The water here ,is colder than near by, muddy, and of a different greenish hue. It has been called a dead water zone, A derelict ship once drifted in this circle for a month, not far from the great sweep of tho Gulf Stream itself. Says the Hydrographic Office: "The fresh water seems to act like oil in smoothing down tho sea, and it resists the formation of waves at the ; boundary of tho fresh and salt water."

Oil Looms on dry land nave sometimes been started on indications not innch stronger than those which, are righted by seafarers in the gulf. At present, however, the value of submerged oil wells is somewhat less than the value of submerged real estate.