THE ROMANCE OF OIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 364, 15 April 1910, Page 7

THE ROMANCE OF OIL.

THE BUO.M IX ENGLAND. Infonnation t 0 hand bv the last Enon that "«* 1 u-., Stock was to a oih "T nd ''- v tJlu publication men„.r Wi , tJjat , thti . f , 1 lal 'o' e ord,! ™ for oil „"■ f u) . - Nav .y» and tile consequent anticipation that in the near future S oleU uv?. 1 supplant coal in H ,11 l a W(i(ik 01 this iutimil " tion oil became a rrval to rubber, and a )-» turn was added to the speculators' jargon, petroleum shares being referred to ,f "pets Russian 'Tets," Anglooituguese ''Pets/' "Eastern Pets/' and so on. It is quite .certain tlmt tn c usot petroleum must necessarily increase every year .and therefore the rush of &tock Exchange business has a considerable and reasonable justification, provided, of course, that investors are careul m the selection 'of their enterprises, lii-eat Britain's coal 'supply has been one o. its greatest imperial assets, and it is l interesting to know exactly where petroleum is being found now. and to estimate the possibilities of the future. The following table showing the world's production of crude oil in 1907 appeared in the Financial Times of June 1909: % „ , Percentage Country Barrels of of total' , 42gallons), production United States .. 160,0D0,335 03.12 ®"ssia 01.550.734 23 50 Sumatra, Java and Germany 750.031 .30 Other *30.(100 .01 1 Borneo *8.738.302 330 Galim 3.300.441 Roumania .. .. s.l 18.207 3 2-? Tndia 4.344.102 1 05 Mexico 1.000.000 .38 Panada 785.572 .30 | Italy .. *53.500 .02 Total .. .. 202.212.299 100.00 "Estimated. From this, says a London contemporary, it will be seen that in 1907 the United States produced nearly two-thhds-of the total production, and that Russia, Roumania, and Galicia together produced nearly a third. The "United States oil is largely, though by no means entirely, in the hands of the Standard Oil Trust, the picturesque millionaire-ma-nufacturing concern that is daily denounced by American reformers." The Nobels, the Rothschilds, and other great financiers are concerned with the oil exported from Russia and the Dutch East Indies, which, it will be seen lrom t'ne above table, represented in 1907 the j third most'• pro! i flic field. Mr. E, L. ■ Drake was the first man to "strike oil."; This happened on August 28, 1859, near! Johnsviile, Pennsylvania. Immediately i the whole district became a series of camps-, adventurers flecking from nil ( parts of the world, making wells and I sinking shafts. But although Pennsvl- j vania was the first State in which oil was found, its yield is nowadays less than that of Kansas. California (where 1 an independent British company has a ' valuable, business). Illinois, Texas and . Ohio. Petroleum is also found in Vir-! ginia, Indiana, Louisiana, 'Now York, | Kentucky, and other States. It has now ( been demonstrated that the oilfields of j the world are far greater than is shown i by the 1907 table printed above. { In a lecture delivered on Jannary 20' last Mr. J. D. Henry, the leum expert, said:-—"There arj§ many! undiscovered Bakus in the British Em-1 pire, aiul yet the one imperial pUiield I which has supplied fuel oil (and then j ■only to the extent of a small cargo ov j two) for the Navy is Burma. With our | undoubtedly great Imperial oil sources: awaiting development we need not envy I Russia her Baku. . . . We, the British everywhere, in foreign lands and in or own colonies, will make a fatal mistake if we fail to appreciate the immense scope there is for oilfield expansion, or if, in the huge refinery section, we do not make flhe most of the facilities which exist for the early and rapid multiplication of the uses to which the numerous products of petroleum can be devoted. After all, there are few countries which are barren of oil; the greatest oil sources are still hidden beneath the earth's crust, and some of these. I seriously believe, are in our own colonies. The geography of the petroleum world is no longe-r confined to the two first great centres of production, Baku and Pennsylvania; the sun never sets on the oil'world." This is good hearing when one remembers that New Zealand is not without her possibilities. But apart from the possibilities of Taranaki, there are other promising fields within the Empire. To begin with, there is oil is Scotland, with a yearly yield, according to the Financial News, of 150,000 tons. There is a splendid oilfield in Burma, kept 'Wisely ouside the ramifications of the Standard Oil Trust, and there is oil is Assam. There is plenty of oil in Canada, the fields of gallons of crude petroleum every year, and wells have been successfully sunk in the Far West.

The Commonwealth Oil Corporation is successfully developing a great terri- J torv in New South Wales. anil there are j doubtless other fields still awaiting discovery. One of the most interesting of the new oilfields is on tl» coast of Egypt, at the south-east of the fiulf of Suez. The coast itself and tiie Islands of .Tubal are said to lie rich in petrnleum, and it is a romantic fact that the driving power of modern rushing civrlisation should be found in this centre of the ancient world and on one of the world's greatest waterways. The existence of this oil in the descr* mentioned in a report sent to Hie Foreign Office as long ago as 1880, but the fact was apparently forgotten until an old Blue Book accidentaiTlv fell into Mie hands of an expert, who confirmed the facts and obtained concessions that are now being worked bv the Egyptian Oil Trust and the Eastern Petroleum Company. The nearness to the sea gives 1 the* field great value. Nigeria is another British possession rich in oil. Mr. TTarlev Moselev. G.M.G., ex-Colonial Secretary of Lagos., im a speech two vears ago. spoke of the oil supply making Nigeria "an absolutely indispensable limb of the Empire." Tt. appears, therefore. that if oil should eventually entirely replace coal in the Naw. the British Empire need not fear for its snv>p]v of fuel. Ctvrifxln can look after the west side of the Atlantic and the cist of the Pacific. Australia and New Zealand the west of the Pacific. Burma the Tndian Ocean. Ni<r<>ria the ronrl to the Cone. and Egypt the great trade route to the East.

Tt is now =OlllO voars sinpp ill* 4 Oveiiuki Shale WorVs closed down and the iiimin«pr rptwHied to Scotland. and it mine*, rod a* if there little Vone of the renewal of onnratinn*: but the eonmniiv litive decided to nut the field tlironcli p thorough tost., and with H,nt. nbieet in view tho 0 ovn-.ini out ♦« plfiee pt <*f«r>o«!>l in " ".•nv.tli'' 7 tini'* o!>° of tlfe dhtnoTid

drills that iiave been doing service at Waihi. Though the works have been idle for a considerable time, tile machinery has been periodically overhauled, and so, should operations be resumed, everything will be found in working order. It is stated that the company's desire is to lave an area outside their | lease tested, as they are not satisfied that they have picked out the best site obtainable. It is contended by those who are active in the matter that, as the British Empire only supplies a small amount of the world's oil production, from an Imperial point of view it is advisable to exploit the oil deposits within tire hounds of the Empire, so that in the event of success we would be independent of foreign supplies should international complications ever PCCUT.