THE RUSSIAN PETROLEUM TRADE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7002, 26 April 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE RUSSIAN PETROLEUM TRADE.

On the shores of the Caspian Sea there are vast deposits of petroleum, and these, though ,they have scarcely yet been opened, already amount to one-sixth of the American production'. The oil-bearing strata stretch from Baku, past the island of Tcheliken, 300 miles across the Caspian, through the great steppes of Turkestan, until it is lost close to the Himalayas. . ... The accounts of this district given by O'Donovan in his wonderful, ride to Merv, by Mr. Marvin, Colonel Stewart, Mr, Arthur Arnold, and others, have made the district familiar to us. Without putting too much stress on their singular descriptions of fountains of petroleum 300 feet high, wasting themselves into petroleum lakes, it is sufficient to know ■ that there are 400 wells of oil in the small 'explored area. Around it the hamlet of : Baku has beoome a city of 30,090 inhabitants. The price of petroleum at these wells is less than that of water. The crude oil haa been

telling at 4d per barrel of 40 gallons. Still all this resource of petroleum is worth little if it cannot be purified cheaply and be transported economically. This /difficulty has been solved by the ability and energy of Mr. Ludwig Nobel, a practical engineer. He is of Swedish extraction,' and has become the Russian oil king. Mr. Nobel has built steam fleets entirely for the quick transport of the finished oil, and these steamers ore propelled by the refuse of the distillation. The refined oils pass by pipes to the end of a jetty, and are pumped directly into the holds. These ships, when they reach .harbour, pump the petroleum into specially-constructed_ railway vans or reservoirs, twenty-five of which form a train. When this arrives at its destination, the petroleum is again pumped out into distributing tanks, of which there are many of. varying capacity throughout Russia. In this way American petroleum has been driven out of Russia while Cauacsion petroleum has taken its place. This would not affect the rest of Europe greatly were it not that the Russian oil king is already pouring petroleum through the Baltic into Germany ; and he is preparing to flood the Mediterranean and India through the Black Sea, by. the railway connecting Baku and Batoum.or.to speak more generally, the Caspian with the Black Sea. If these ventures have a commercial success, there is, undoubtedly, petroleum in the Caucasian lands sufficient to supply the world with that commodity for a prolonged period of its his.tory.