WHEN WELLS RUN DRY
Predictions of a petroleum famine and a wood famine have been freely made, and it has been said that a fortune is waiting round the corner for coal-oil processes, also for countries that have started early enough to grow exportable softwoods. New Zealand already possesses the coal, and is growing exotic trees at an increasingly rapid rate; therefore, New Zealand cannot fail to be interested in the famine predictions concerning wood and oil. It would seem, however, that petroleum and its products are selling rather cheaply for a famine-threatened commodity. Lord Rutherford finds that the low prices
are at present a limiting factor on the commercial development of processes for extracting oils from coal. His view seems to be that coal oils prpbably will not pay unless cheaper processes are worked out on the coal side, or unless, on the petroleum side, prices rise. Such a rise seems to postulate a scarcity that is not yet manifest. Will it ever be? Other countries, beside New Zealand, are fired by the laudable ambition to add to the world's stocks of commercial petroleum.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 119, 22 May 1931, Page 8
Word Count
185WHEN WELLS RUN DRY Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 119, 22 May 1931, Page 8
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