OIL FROM SHALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 142, 13 December 1939, Page 10

OIL FROM SHALE

BIG PRODUCTION

AUSTRALIA'S EFFOET

PLANNING OF GLEN DAVIS

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, November 29

Within the next six months millions of gallons of refined motor spirit, produced from shale, will begin to flow from the plant at Glen Davis, Australia's latest industrial and first "oil town."

Situated in the. Glen Alice Valley, 27 miles from Capertee, on the SydneyMudgee Road, Glen Davis is being planned for a population within the inext year or so of from 3000 to 4000, i with all the amenities of a modern country town. The development of this great oil venture is being backed by the Federal and State Governments, who have arranged for loans totalling £500,000 to assist in establishing the industry. t The National Oil Pty., Ltd., estimates that the first year's output will not be less than 10,000,000 gallons of spirit, but plans have been made to ensure a maximum of 30,000,000 gallons annually. Although .this total represents only one-tenth of Australia's annual consumption of motor spirit, the supply from Glen Davis can be maintained indefinitely, so extensive are the shale deposits available. All oil produced will be refined by the company at Glen Davis, and will be sent out as firstgrade motor spirit.

Intense building activity is now in progress to enable the plant to be ready for commercial production by February or March. The Glen Davis venture marks the end of Newnes as an oil-producing centre. Much of the old plant at Newnes has been dismantled and removed to the new works, which, are situated on the other side of Baldface Mountain. One of the reasons influencing the company to operate from Glen Davis is the fact that the shale seam there averages at least four feet, compared with 18 inches to two feet at Newnes.

The problem of transporting the oil in the absence of railway facilities from Glen Davis to the main line has been solved by the decision 'to lay down a pipe line.

Of 3£in diameter, the pipe will run from the works along an old bridle track, skirting the mountain, and will then run through Green's Gully to Newnes township. From Newnes, the pipe will follow a long disused railway line to Newnes railway junction. The total distance covered by the pipe will be about 36 miles.

DIRECT ACTION FOR FLOW OIL

Efforts to find flow oil in Australia for many years have produced almost negative results, but the Federal Government, which has spent more.than £150,000 on the search since 1936, is not satisfied that the efforts have been properly conducted. A Ministerial an- < uncem,ent was made in the House of Representatives this week that the Government had decided on a new policy for the development of oil resources. It would take direct action to develop oil-bearing areas instead of relying solely on private enterprise to accept the full responsibility of developing promising oilfields which Government researches had discovered.

In reply to a questioner, Mr. Perkins, the Minister making the announcement, said: "I admit that we will have to fight the big oil companies, but if the oil is there the Government will find a way of overcoming the opposition." The questioner then remarked: "Definite steps have been taken by oil companies to stop the discovery of oil in Australia."