HATS RAISED TO A “LOYAL’ WELL

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 24

HATS RAISED TO A “LOYAL’ WELL

A WONDER OF THE OIL WORLD. Lecturing before the members of the Central Asian Society at the Royal United Service Institution, London, upon “The Anglo-Persian Oilfields,” Squad-ron-Leader A. R. C. Cooper, who was stated by Sir Michael O’Dwyer (who presided) to possess a unique knowledge of Mesopotamia and the oilfields, related aji interesting war-time incident in connection with one ot the oil wells. This oil well, he said, was historic, in that it kept the British Navy supplied with oil throughout the war without once failing, and as a consequence it was customary to "raise the hat” to it as a tribute to its loyalty. The well was sunk in August, 1911, and was reckoned to give onlv 1000 barrels a day, but in March, 1914, it drilled itself in, and then gave approximately 12,000 barrels, and was still giving that quantity, and to-day had a total production of over 5,000,000 tons a year, or 1,400,000,000 gallons. It was one of the wonders of the oil world, and there were now in the Persian fields wells capable of giving an even greater annual production.