MOTOR SPIRIT.

Shannon News, 16 December 1924, Page 4

MOTOR SPIRIT.

ROMANCE QF PETROL. ..GEOLOGISTS PUZZLED. As you travel by bus, charabanc, or for that matter, by any other form of motor transport, do you ever, think of the romance of the fuel petrol, which provides the power?, (asks a London exchange). . Among natural products, petroleum, the crude oil from which motor spirit is taken, occurs in every continent of the world,' and new fields are being (tipped every day to meet the tremen-dous-and growing demand for its products. , A popular fallacy regarding crude oil is that it is found in large underground ponds or pools. This is quite an error, as the oil is always contained in a porous stratum in the earth.' This stratum consists of sand or limestone, and contains the oil as a sponge holds water. Naturally the oil bearing stratum must lie between two strata of impervious material, such as day or rock, otherwise all the oil would have leaked away and been lost ages ago.

Organic or Inorganic. Some authorities hold that the oil is of organic origin—-that it ha® been produced by. the decajf. pi. vegetable matter in the same way that coal has been formed by the decay of prehistoric forests, but under slightly different conditions. Others say that the formatiohls inorganic—that it has been formed by interaction of minerals.

As recently as 20 or 30 years ago, in Roumania or Russia, wells were dug by hand, as when sinking for water. The oil was then bailed out with wooden or - leather buckets, in exactly the same way as water is obtained in country villages to-day. In Roumania some of these wells were as deep as 450 with wickerwork to prevent the walls caving in.

This method, of course, could only reach oil comparatively near the surface. To-day oil wells can be drilled to the depth of a mile and a half in search of deep-lying oil-bearing strata, but these wells arc of much smaller; diameter, being probably 4in. to 12 in. bore. The walls are lined with steel. Two Methods.

There are two principal methods of drilling wells in s operation -to-day. First, the percussion system, A heavy drilling tool is hung on the end of a wire cable, and alternately raised and dropped on to the earth or rocks ■thus pounding it into fragments. These fragments are at short inteivals bailed out of the hole in the form oi mud In the second system a rotary drill is used, and the fragments of earth arc to’atinually wa-.u'd to the scurface by keeping water circulating down the drill rods and up the sides of tir. well.

When the oil bearing 'stratum is reached, sometimes the oil flows to Ifche..top ol the well under a violent pressure. The well is then lUimvn as a “gusher,” and'if the prea ure ls'vjry great the, most stringent precautions have to be taken to keep tlxe oil within bounds. At other times the oil docs not reach the surface, then, in order to produce it, j the well has .u bu. >_onunuully pumped. (After the oil is obtained from the well it has to be taken to the refinery, in order that it may be divided into its various components, and made suitable for commercial purposes. This transport is usually affected by pipe ine®, which in some cases are of enormous length. The famous line beftwee’n Baku and Batoum, in the Russian fields is almost 560 miles in length.

After the arrival at the refinery, the crude oil is distilled. That is, it is heated in large vessel®, and the vapour which boils off is condensed. Among the first vapours evolved is ithe petrol known as “aviation spirit.” jAfter the benzines or motor spirit ; come the kerosenes, usually known as “paraffin oil.” Tfie estimated world’s production of petroleum for 1823 was 136 million tons.