PETROLEUM SUPPLIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 28 May 1927, Page 14

PETROLEUM SUPPLIES.

FUTURE OIL FIELDS,

Petroleum, either in its liquid state as “crude oil,” or a vapour or natural cr.«,s, is the raw material or petrol. “ it is the production of crude oil that materially determines the cost of petrol to the motor..sts (states the ‘‘Big A* ee Bulletin’Ho important 19 this phase ox the industry that ail later questions relating to petrol naturally revert to it. As the price paid for cotton affects the cost of calico, as; the price of wheat eventually determines the cost ot flour, and the price of iron, ore later influences the cost of steel, so does petrol letiect the cost of crude petroleum. After careful investigation the tact is shown that vastly more money has been spent seeking for gold than was ever taken from the gold mines. People tell of the fortunes made by the bonanza kings of ’49, and those of the KlondiKe, but are ''silent about the thousands, ol prospectors who tailed to find the precious metal and lost all they possessed in the attempt. Elven so has it been with oil. But as the hue of gold leads mem to many Klondikes, so has the 1 ure of i 4 n g O old * 1 —'j>et'i ole urn —carried man .into every section of the world to .supply the demands of civilisIn most cases oil, and frequently natural gas with it, is found in strata at varying depths beneath the earth s surface, it usually occurs in a porous reservoir of a sandstone type between two layers of less porous rock. To .some extent oil is found in almost every seelion of the world. Commercially, however, oil is brought to the surface lor uti isntion in several well-defined areas. Some authorities, are convinced that Mexico, the South, American countries bordering the Oairribqan Sea, Mesopotamia-, and Persia-, will nra.ke' the most notable contributions to the world’s supply of petroleum within the next decade. Others believe Russia, and the fields of Poland and Galicia will be sufficient to make these countries the leaders in the eastern hemisphere. It is also generally thought that the production of crude oil in the United States lias reached .its maximum and that its decline will be slow, but steady, within the next few years;. Again, others more optimistic of this country’s untapped supply more or less disregard geological estimate's and call attention to new fields in various sections of the) country which were formerly considered to be non-productive.