OIL AND PETROLEUM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 803, 25 October 1929, Page 9

OIL AND PETROLEUM

LECTURE AT UNIVERSITY “Although petroleum was known, as ■ early as 3000 8.C., the birth of the modern oil industry did not come until 1859, when an American ‘struck oli’ after commencing boring operations above a seepage of gas,” said Mr. J. H. r orde in the course of a lecture on “Oil and Petroleum Products,’’ at the Auckland University College last evening. He was assisted by Mr. F. S. Stevens whose films illustrated various stages tho production and distribution of Continuing, Mr. Fordo said that previous to 1859, animal, vegetable and coal products had been exploited to provide lubrication for the growing machine industry. Different theories were held by chemists and geologists concerning the operation ot natural agents ill the creation of oil, but as yet no satisfactory explanation coinciding with both viewpoints had been advanced. The depth of a well necessary fpi- a strike varied from 50 feet to 3,000 feet, and even when oil strata was struck an explosion was sometimes necessary to loosen a rock before a flow would begin. In the United States, which produced 70 per cent, of last year’s total oil volume, there were 55,000 miles of pipe-line to convey the oil from the wells to refineries, where it was stored in huge tanks.