OIL SUPPLIES DEPLETION.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 338, 20 January 1937, Page 6

OIL SUPPLIES DEPLETION.

NONK IN TWENTY YEARS. RESULT OF INCREASED DEMAND. Such a stir has been caused by reports of a recent warning made in Washington by Sir John Cadman, the oil magnate, that In 20 years the world's oil supplies may be exhausted, that the Anglo-Indian Oil Company (of which Sir John Is chairman) has ■ Issued a cautionary statement. “Mention was made in broad terms only," «aid the statement, "of estimates whioh have appeared recently In various technical publications, and Sir John expressed no opinion about their accuracy. “Th© sole object of the reference was to draw attention to the undoubted desirability of doing everything possible to prevent waste In the production and utilisation of Nature's valuable, but diminishing, source of liquid fuel.” Some of the oil experts In London whom a London newspaper consulted accepted the view that a future oil famine is already in Others believed a serious shortage could be averted. Those who foresee trouble point out that— The world Is using up oil at a great rate and the demand Is increasing. It is unlikely that new supplies will be found In sufficient quantity to balance the falling off of the old supplies. Failing totally unexpected discoveries, a shortage in 20 or 30 years is inevitable. Against this view other experts argued that—Modern methods of extraction produce an increasing yield from the oil found (70 per cent, now compared with 30 or 40 per cent, a few years ago). Deeper drilling (oil wells are now down to 13,000 feet and 14,000 feet, offers new possibilities; pools of oil in hitherto untouched strata can be reached. The new geophysical methods of finding oil are much surer; chances of finding oil are Improved. There have been important new discoveries of oil during the last live years—in Russia, in the Persian Gulf, in Arabia. But the largest producing field is still East Texas, where there are 20,000 wells. “The truth is," explained Dr. Murray Stuart, London petroleum technologist, “we do not know exactly yet how oil was formed, and so we cannot know where' to look for it In the war we know where to look for coal. “Discovery may change the whole situation. Someone may discover how to get 20 gallons of pure petroleum out of a ton of coal instead of the 20 gallons of tai'-oil that we get now. That would revolutionise the outlook. “But whatever we are going to do we must be busy right away if we want to avoid an oil shortage.”