OIL-SEEKERS IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 75, 23 December 1918, Page 8

OIL-SEEKERS IN BRITAIN

A WAR ENTERPRISE

CENTURIES OLD TRACES (By a Scientific Contributor to the "Westminster Gazette.") In face of pressing demands by the Navy and oilier services, the question is being asked whether there are petrolwini fields in Great Britain, unci, if so, whether they can be made productive. Twenty years ago, when the writer l;s----taiiie "the proud possessor of the first edition of Sir Buverion Uedwood's monitmratiil "Trentiso on Petroleum," winch still holds the premier place in th« vc;lpvence library of evor.y petroleum tecJino-loj-ist it gewe hint cause for wonder that, notwithstanding thei numerous and widespread occurrences of petroleum, -w servicmWo "pool" had ton revealed in Iceland. That any existed, however, seemed doubtful, for clearly the country must have been drilled full nt holes in ninkiii" leats for coal, far .water, iind tor what not. Still, there lingered a <lssir ß to look at the region whenever the occasion arose. . , The circumstances of the war ami the increased needi iirisin" from it led to investiifiitions that have, given reason for considerable hope and eoivhdonce. ho Ion." as the world was open ,-iCientwts paid most attention to distant Imitories as it seemed axiomatic that Hie bent prospect of tmulls was in regions whose •'polocv was virtually unknown, tint with the interruption oi this foreign work came the opportunity lor currying out the lung-cherished plan of examining Knglish petroleum indications. flius it has happened that leading members of Lord O.vdroy's staft have ton engnced during the past four yea u in amawini; a vast amount of data irom which opinions have teen formed, fliero opinions depend for their value upon tho methods of research and the eeientmc criteria that time and again have been demonstrated in the American oilhelds to l>o correct, and have Irom their proven merit been gradually adopted bv all the lnrge oil companies. 'The first step taken was to compile from all available sources nil the reported occurrences of petroleum and table the positions of nil deep boreholes. The result was to show that the great majority of these reported .leakages of petroleum or petroleum residues were in some way associated with the carboniferous strata, and that most of them wore in tho Midlands. Tlio knowledge of theso occurrences guu.s back for,centuries, and they had been relegated to tho status, of commonplaces or mere mineral curiosities decades before the very recent birth of the petroleum industry. Reports' of leakages of oil of similar magnitude in unexplored regions have been rosponsible, however, in recent times for moro than one expedition to distant parts of tho earth.

Examinations in the Midlands _ have shown other traces of petroleum in exposed limestones, the most noteworthy of which is at the limi'stono quarry _ at Crich, where the cavities in the limestone arc filled with oil. Practically these are in themselves of no importance—they are merely the last remnants of oil deposits Ion;; sinco dissipated by the wearing away of the protecting cover.

Tho porous beds, which in the Midlands would form suitable reservoirs for petroleum, are primarily the sandstones of the Millstone Grits, mud, secondarily, the opper portions of the mountain limestone were porous. For these to be effectivo reservoirs they must have a sufficient covering of shales to prevent leakage, mid it follows, therefore, that the great object has been to determine tlioso areas where the geological structure of the bed was nucli as to make tracts in which the petroleum would accumulate, and not escape. To drill for .oil :'u the regions wliero the conititiQTio for the accumulation and retention of petroleum do not exist would not be warranted even if oil had tho vahit of jjolii. At repru.i structure, what the investigator has to 6eek for is wrinkles in the earth's strata, anticlines, local domes-and terraces, which constitute traps for the accumulation and retention of the petroleum into workable pools. It is interesting to recall, by tho way, one occurrence of great historical in-terest-i.e., that at the Kidding Colliery, near Alfretou, in Derbyshire., The flow of petroleiiK! into this mine, singularly enough, led to the establishment of the Scottish shale industry, and incidentally to tho long delay in the development of the petroleum industry in England. Dr. Playfair, a relative of tho owner if the Kiddings Colliery, having informed a yoiiuj Scottish chemist of the occurrence, the latter, Dr. ' .lumen Xoung, erected a plant for refining the on, and produced from it—for the short }'™ e , <'}«-• leakage confinncd-liehveen iM/-,>o, kerosene, lubricating? oil, and paraffin wox. In seeking for an explanation of the origin of this oil, Dr loung formed the hypothesis Hint it was produced, from the coal by gentle healing, and while this hypothesis was erroneous, and probably has been responsible lo a greater degree than any other cause for the ron-devclopinent of the .Lnghsh oilfields, Dr. Young's experiments, led to his securing commercial yields ot oil from the Torbane Hill mineral, or Torlwnite of Scotland, and ironii, this to the establishment of the Scottish stale industry. Tn Anieivirrr.iere was a similar iuilial misconception with i-spard lo peiroleimi winch continued (o find expression in the word 'coal oil," long after the existence ot large petroleum pools had been (lemon.?!rated by those who reasoned Unit if there was n leak of petroleum it was worth drilling to eee if there was not more of it. ,U home Dr. Young'* prestige was sufficient to fix the belief that the oil which continued to be eneounterad from lime to lime in dill'erent coal mines in the Midlands-sometime* enough pni-lly lo fill a mine-shaft, as in one pit in (he J'ollerics, sometimes llnwuijr.iiito the mini> at Ihe rale of over llK) barrej.s per day, as at Wath-oii-J-warne, in Yorkshire—was mc-relv a product of coal. The very multiplicity of the phenomena made of it commonplace. -lllis commonplace, however, proved lo be as wrong us are many other assumptions. .Investigations showed that Hie Al.ouiil.iiii Limestone was the impovtiuit iundiiniaiital factor in the commercial petroleum problem in Great Britain, and this view ww confirmed by Ihe evidence that no pelroleuin has ;W?n found in any of Ilio coal miuw in lhasc fields where tin; Mountain Limestone k alvsent.

It is on Hip results of four years' extensive mid inlemivo sliitlv of Hip pe(roliiuin po.-:sibililie.s of Great Britain Hint drilling operations will soon begin, l.q moment, has iilveutly been provided for Jive sites nt'Chesterfield, : and there (In- start i is being uiacle. i These wells are being'stink at national expense, with R. Pearson and Ron, J,imitvd, iieling as- petroleum development n'.nnagtrs, lionl fViwiliviy having: placed the services of his firm and of his goolnsric.il stuff, and (heir carefully considered conclusions, based on exhaustive researches, lit the service of the nation five of oust for (hi* work us a war measure. The undertaking is lie.injj carried tliroii»li for the Mineral Oil .Department' of (he Minis!rv of Munitions .