THE ROMANCE OF OIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 136, 9 June 1911, Page 2

THE ROMANCE OF OIL.

SOURCES OF SUPPLY WITHIN THE EMPIRE. BIG POSSIBILITIES OK DEVELOPMENT. There was a minor oil boom on London Stock Exchange last year consequent largely on the new 3 "that the Government was placing large orders for oil fuel for the Navy, and the anticipation that in the near future petroleum will largely supplant coal in ships. Just for a few weeks oil became a rival to rubber, and a new turn was added to the speculators' jargon, petroleum shares being referred to as "pets"—Russian "Pets," Anglo-Portuguese "Pets," Eastern "Pets," and so on.

It is quite certain that tie use of petroleum must necessarily increase every year, and, therefore, the rush of Stock Exchange business had a considerable and reasonable justification, provided, of course, that investors were careful in the selection of their enterprises. The boom -was transient, but the causes that prompted it remain. Great Britain's coal supply has been one of its greatest imperial assets, and it is interesting to know exactly where petroleum is being found now, and to estimate the possibilities of the future. THREE YEARS AGO. The following table appeared in the "Financial Times" of June 22, 1909: —

From this it will be seen that in 19091 the United States produced nearly twothirds of the total production, and that Russia, Roumania, and Gaiieia, 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 millionairemanufacturing concern that is daily denounced by American reformers. The Ndbels, the Rothschilds, and other great financiers are concerned with the oil exported from Russia and the Dutch East Indies, which, it will be seen from the above table, represented in 1907 the third most prolific field. THE PIONEER. Mr E. L. Drake was the first man to "strike oil." This happened on August 28, 1859, near Johnsonville, Pennsylvania. Immediately the whole district became a series of camps, adventurers flocking from all parts of the world, making wells and sinking shafts. But although Pennsylvania was the first State in which oil was found, its yield is nowadays less than that of Kansas, California (where an independent British company has a valuable business), Illinois, Texas, and Ohio. Petroleum is also found in Virginia, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Kentucky, and other States.

It has now been demonstrated that the oilfields of the world are far greater than is shown by the 1907 table printed above. In a lecture delivered recently Mr J. D. Henry, the great petroleum expert, said:— There are many undiscovered Bakus in tho British Empire, and yet the one imperial oilfield which has supplied fuel oil (and then only to the extent of a small cargo or two) for the Navy 13 Burma. With our undoubtedly great imperial oil sources awaiting development we need not envy Russia her Baku. . . . We, the British everywhere, in foreign lands and in our 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 use 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 longer confined to the two first great centres of production—Baku and Pennyslvania; the sun never sets on the oil world. This is good hearing when one remembers the possibilities of tho future* To begin with, there is oil in Scotland, with a yearly yield, according to the "Financial News," of 150,000 tons per annum. There is a splendid oilfield in Burma, Kept wisely outside the ramifications of the Standard Oil Trust, and! there is oil in Assam. There is plenty of oil in Canada, the fields of Western On- \ tario producing 28,000,000 gallons of crude petroleum every year, and wells having been successfully sunk in the Far West. The Commonwealth Oil Corporation is successfully developing a great territory in New South Wales, and there is ofl. in New Zealand. GULF OF SUEZ. One oJ_ the most interesting of the new oilfields is on the coast of Egypt, at the south-east of the Gulf of Suez. The coast itself and the Islands of Jubal are said to be rich in petroleum, and it is a romantic fact that the driving power of modern rushing dvilieation should be found in this centre of the ancient world and on one of the world's greatest waterways.

The existence of oil in this desert was mentioned in a report sent to the Foreign Office as long ago as 1886, but the fact was apparently forgotten until an old Blue Book accidentally fell into the hands of an expert, who confirmed the facts and obtained concessions that are now being worked by the Egyptian Oil Trust and the Eastern Petroleum Company. The nearness of the sea gives the field its great value. Nigeria is another British possession rich in oil. Mr Harley Moseley, C.M.G., ex-Colonial Secretary of Lagos, in a speech two years ago, spoke of the oil supply making Nigeria "an absolutely indispensable limb of the Empire." A company has been floated to exploit the oil in the Island of Trinidad. It appears, therefore, that if oil should eventually entirely replace coal in the Navy, the British Empire need not fear for its supply of fuel. Canada can look after the west side of the Atlantic and the east of the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand the west of the Pacific, Burma the Indian Ocean, Nigeria the road to the Cape, and Egypt the great trade route to the East.—"Daily Express."

WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF CRUDE PETROLEUM, 1907. _ Percentage Country. Barrels (of of total 42 gallons), production. United States .. 166,005,335 ,. 63.12 B-ussla 61,800,734 „ 23.50 Sumatra, Java, and Borneo .. *S,73S,302 .. 3.36 Galicla 8,360,441 .. 3.36 Roumania 8,11S,207 .. 3.22. India 4.344,102 .. 1.63 Japan 2,010,639 .. .76 Mexico _.., 1,000,000 _ .SS Canada „„„.. 788,872 .. .30 Germany 756,631 ... .30 Peru _ 65,476 „ .02 Italy "53,500 „ .02 Other ,..„. *30,000 .. .01 Total 262,212,299 „ 100.00 •Estimated.