PETROLEUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 6 September 1907, Page 2

PETROLEUM.

REFINING Oh' PETROLEUM—COST OF PLANT, ETC. '•Oil" writes as follows:—Tho idea that most of us have got is that the cost of a refinery plant such as any small company may require is expensive. This |is not the case. Mr \V. 11. McGarvey, an authority on refinery plants (being the Californiau refinery expert and also 1 :adviser to tho California Oilfields, limit- l ]ed, and the Anglo-Mexican Oilfieldds, 1 'Limited, in connection v.-ith their relh- I jery department), writing to the last : jmentioned company in Juno of this vear, < | says "it _ should be your policy to 1 sell tile oil for liquid fuel, You w'o.iiii naturally extract the benzine, for which ! there is practically an unlimited market and very high prices. To extract the ■ benzine and sell it in its raw statethat is, with all the fractions together—would require a very simple distillery plant on the continuing system. A plant to run through from 5000 to fiOOO barrels per day, including the necessary I pumps and condensers, wouK not coAmore than £3OOO or £4OOO, based upon .the price of labor and material in America at a convenient point. Should there be only 5 per cent benzine (the Taranaki petroleum contains 20 per ! cent) in the crude, the value of the benjzine would, by itself, show a large profit j without taking into account the remainjing fuel oil, which can be sold at a verv ■good price." The Californian Refineries, |Limited, has just sold to Japan by eonj tract most of their residue. There is r I another point I would like to touch up--3 on, viz., the facilities that other coun;,'tries offer to prospecting petroWiu lj companies. Tho Federal Government i. of Mexico have granted to any company j, wishing to prospect for petroleum in e tneir country a concession, the free intraduction of all machinery and plant re--0 quired for the operation of any company. Concessions have also been granted by , the Government of Chili, in which ir many companies have started to bore, S certain exemptions from taxation, and '• permission for the construction ofroads II and many other facilities. The indus- '• try in Mexico is protected by a duty of ! di 3 (i.i per ton on crude petroleum and II £9 per ton on refined. It is a pity. 11 that our Government does not try and 1 help this industry by admitting free of duty all machinery and plant instead of ft , making all companies pay such high x i —English casing 5 per cent, Ame- | rican and German 20 per cent, engine 'and boilers 20 per cent, and many other i parts of plants at rates almost equal to j the above. All mining should bo I treated alike. Alining machinery is s " | admitted free, and 1 consider that extracting the mineral petroleum from the ■d .earth is as valuable an industry as goUl io mining. Then why different duties on a- the plants? :o As showing the vast extent of the oil r- industry in some parts of America it Is ;r interesting to note that the output of m one company alone in 1903 was 208,380 ,y barrels; in 11)04, 858,121 barrels; in 1905, ; a 1 2,009,058 barrels; and in 1900, 3,385,008 ld I barrels. These are tremendous figures. jThe capital invested received profits of J 10 per cent in 1904, 20 per cent in 1905, ] and 15 per cent in the first half of a ,1907.

. THE BIRTHDAY WELL. I To the Editor. I Sir,—As the annual meeting of the [shareholders in the Taranaki Petroleum Company is drawing near, .we may perhaps expect the directors to proceed with cleaning out and the thorough testing of the birthday well. To me, and to the majority of shareholders, it is almost inconceivable that they should go 011 tinkering with the experimental bores when they already have one "down on oil." If it is ''down 011 oil" why isn't it allowed to run, so that the shareholders may know that there's something being got for the money sunk in the hole. The refinery seems even further oil than the permanent shutting-off of water, and it strikes me that we had better sell crude oil right away than continue the waiting policy. If there's not a decent llow of oil before the annual meeting there'll probably be a ilow of "gas" from the shareholders.—l am, etc., FOUR SHAKES.