RUSSIA'S OILFIELDS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8280, 27 October 1915, Page 7

RUSSIA'S OILFIELDS.

A GREAT SACRIFICE. NECESSITATED BY THE RETIREMENT. " A scant, paragraph in the daily Pii.JJtilg iUl.il to pICIAUe 111 it lliilgtmln., i.Jiu line gciierai puuiic gives no ltivniw 1 o-Oi».-3iuei^ciu-ii lv uio iau,t tauu xvussju's .suuiegic rotirenieut necessity tea a goiiw^i liiiug ox tndso wonuwliu ;uki out hah-aevoioped ou Deius. wmen extend over \viuo distances along tlie Au'Stio-j.xuiig<uian rrozitiers. A little L-OiioiuoiaCioii vv.iil, However, reveal the startling commercial loss not only to Ku.ssia, but pern up s to Europe at large. .Neither is tiie loss for the pre- • sent only; poss.sioiy the .tiros so started may last for generations; some of the shallower springs will probably be lost for ever.- v m economics and practical sciences Russia has fallen behind the other great Powers of Europe; her agricultural methods .are, for the most part, somewhat primitive, and in. engineering and railroad construction she iaas been content to to leave herself almost entirely in the hands of Gorman contractors. Her oil industry she has, however, most carefully guarded, and ;ha's kept, in the first place in the matter of its scientific development, being at the outbreak of the war quite abreast of America, if not ahead! Baku has been renowned for its oil springs from earliest Persian history, and pilgrimages were made to the centres of incandescent gas springs by bands-of fire worshippers from the time that Xerxes was fired with the ambition of annexing Europe. Baku passed to Russia .during the reign of .Peter the Great, was restored to Persia after his death, and after changing hands several times became the property of Russia again early in the nineteenth century. So far the lields in the Caspian region axe not in immediate danger, fortunately for Europe, for petroleum is already as important a lactor in the 'world's transport as eitiier coal or iron, and the oil bids fair to outdistance ■ either as a rich commercial asset. • I<'rom many of the liaku springs the flow averages more than i,UUO,OOO gallons daily, and in tho most prolih'c region of wells the derricks erected look in the distance like a forest. Millions of pounds' worth of machinery have been placed on tho field, and it is estimated that the drills total 1a" length of 1000 miles. "Up to 1900 many of the wells were worked 'by primitive pumping plants, others by a more primitive pailer—a huge iron bucket, which was Raised and Knv^iud by manual labour.

The .number of forms in which petroleum reached the centres of commerce, the operations of the Great Standard Oil Trust, and a growing economic consciousness on the part of Russia, contributed to the great leap, forward in development. In 19Q3 ■ the [total output from'-'all-'.-tlic Russian oil fields reached 2,954,000,000 gallons; in 1907 the .yield had increased to S, 164,000,000, the increase being largely - due to the opening up of the deposits on the Austro-Hungaria.n frontiers. These had formerly been neglected in a sense; any efforts at systematic and scientific development ha'dup-till then been..spasmodic^,': ".,..' Russian Investors' Hopes.

Russian investors were "at the outbreak of the war pretty coniidunt ianit in these central nelus they had a source of wealth not second to the Baku fields. Among the chief forms in which the line itussian petroleum reaches the markets of Europe a.re gasoline, petrol, benzine, paratbn, vaseline, sluzoline, and benzol, the latter being a very volatile oil and largely used—indeed, almost indispensable-—in the manufacture of rubber, as it is the best rubber solvent yet discovered. Then naphtha and water oil also have important'parts to play in other • manufactures. This list takes no account of an array of by-products associated with the petroleum wells, such as sulphur and certain dyes extracted from tlie mud springs, . or mud volcanoes/which are-'a feature of the oil spring bearing country in Central Europe.

When the history of the war comes to bo written without passion, as some later day it will be written, it will, beyond doubt, be shown that Russia's rapid commercial development, her capture of a tremendous trade about tho Caspian, her diversion of tho Persian trade, which had. formerly passed by way of India.—that all these things stirred the jealous passion of her neighbours, ajid began tho smouldering fires of international hatreds and misunderstandings which has at tho first breach leapt into the • wild fury of flame now destroying Europe.

England herself had qualms and mis-, givings when the Indian trade was transferred, and retrospective reading and research shows that neither France nor England trusted Russia, tho more so that, careless in her 11' other enterprises, the awakening nation of ■ tho north jealously guarded her oilfields, keeping them ' almost exclusively in the hands of her own investors.

In 1889 a party of English speculators, having vainly tried to acquire Russian property, set themselves to gain a footing in the Roumanian oilfields, less known, and very imperfectly developed, yet promising excellently under more efficient treatment. The deal was almost concluded, when R-ou-mania suddenly withdrew her concessions ; and she, too, has followed Russia, in keeping this mineral wealth close for her own people. The annual yield of the Roumanian wells in 1907 reached a total of 62,000,000 gallons, and from a, small, poor town, one of' the oldest in Europe, Balakany has grown to a huge city, with startling .contrast^ in old and new,' A whore perhaps the most curiously mixed population in the world adds to its picturesque charm for the tourist. It is recounted that in its market place one can hear not only eveiy language, but almost every dialect, of Europe"an ; d of Western Asia.

Austria-Hungary's Field. 1 Austria-Hungary has equally promising fields, also largely increasing the- annual output, from more scientific 'methods being adopted. The figures for Germany and Austria during the iyears 1903 and 1907 were:—Austria, 1903, 156i500,000 gallons, and in 1907. 283,700,000 gallons; Germany for 1903 produced 15,600,000 gallons, and in ] 907 she had incre-ascd to an output of 26,000,000 gallons,- and by a now, treatment of shales the latter country has sinco 1907 almost doubled her output, ft will therefore bo plain that neither Gormanv nor Austria is likely to bo short of petrol during the Avar, as she

reserves her entire supply for war purposes.

Turkey has also some resources, but statistics arc not available, nor has it been, the practice of Turkey to let the world know too much about her commercial affairs.

Prosaic as the subject of mineral oil seems on the surface, about the early history of Baku circle -r. most : poetic legends. The fire worshippers found in' the splendid glow of incandescent gas, formerly erupted, a holy of holies, and the shrines were quite numerous. The incandescent gas oeased to bo continuously erupted in the late eighteenth century, though occasionally an o;itburs't startles the modern workman.

Modern appliances, the whirr of machinery, the roar of traction engines, the fields of derricks, and,an armament of workpeople havo, however, quite robbed the old city of its poetic features in proportion as they have contributed to the wealth and comfort of twentieth century civilisation.