IRAK OILFIELD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20323, 3 February 1928, Page 6

IRAK OILFIELD.

A GREAT “GUSHER.”

PREDICTIONS VERIFIED.

Although quite recently it was stated in the House of Commons that there wm not justification for assuming that oil would be found in Irak in quantities that would be commercially profitable, not only exports but others who know Irak at first hand’, were confident that it was only a. matter of time before «v “ gusher would be discovered, exactly as “ gushers were found in South Persia, in the fields of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. There, as m Kirkuk, the discovery was often so sudden that drillers could not at once control the flow, and had no option but to burn the oil. In past days “ crude ” was invariably burnt, and many thousands of tons wont up in flames on the hills of Persia and elsewhere. That was before the value of “ crude ” was recognised, and it i» not likely that much of Irak’s production will so vanish into thin air. Them always has been evidence ot oil in Irak, and the task of the geologists sent out by the Turkish Petroleum Company was to find out whether there was enough to justify the establishment of large refineries, and possibly a pipe-line to the Mediterranean, writes a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. The latter project will now become something worthy ot almost immediate achievement. In Northern Irak there are many parts of the desert black with oil, and the Arabs themselves have, in a small and primitive way, been disposing of it for scores of years. The district round Kirkuk is much of this description, there being many shallow wells formerly worked by the Irakis, m the neighbourhood.. j The Turkish Petroleum Company, whose field the “gusher” has been discovered, was founded in 1912. After many vicissitudes its position, so tar as the present concession is concerned, was made definite in 1925. The concession covers the whole territory of the kingdom of Irak, except the hwa of Basrah and the territories transferred to Turkey from Persia in 1913, where the oil rights had already been exclusively acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. in the convention conferring the concession it was stipulated that the company should always have a British chairman. Towards the end of last year drillers and machinery were sent out to Irak on a scale that suggested the company was certain of results. The port of Basrah had not for years.been so busy, while in Bagdad there was difficulty in findmgaccommodation for the company s staff. This activity gave rise to many rumours or discoveries of “gushers,’ but one after another they were all contradicted. it is only now, after many months of patient work, that a well “fit to tell the world about” has been met. A “gusher,” of course, is merely a well from which oil flows without pumping It is often come across in the Middle East belt, and few, perhaps, of the best wells have not been “gushers. The discovery is of tremendous importance to Irak commercially, and givp promise of great prosperity. Not only will the country benefit from royalties, but it will also benefit indirectly. The concession directs that an overwhelming percentage of Irakis must be employed by the company,' and therefore unemployment is likely to become greatly diminished in the country. We are likely to find repeated the success in this direction that has attended the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, who have developed what may be termed a “ self-contained ” colony of workers, more intent on the prosperity of the company than on political matters. Hitherto dates have been the principal export of Irak, but this old industry, flourishing though it is, and certain to remain flourishing, must now take second place. Kirkuk is a town of some importance about 120 miles S.E, of Mosul, and a rather greater distance to the north-east of Bagdad. The announcement is important, added the Daily Telegraph’s city editor, particularly for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Royal Dutch-Shell undertakings, because the former holds a 47i per cent, interest in the Turkish Petroleum Company, and the latter 22J per cent., the balance being owned as to 25 per cent, by a French group and as to 5 per cent, by Mr C. S. Gulkenkian. The issued capital of the Turkish Petroleum Company, which has a concession for 75 years, originally granted by the Turkish Government, to work the oil deposits over 90,000 square miles in the Mosul and Bagdad vilayets in Irak, now amounts to £1,000,000, to which it was raised in 1925, when a convention was signed by the Irak Government. The shares, which are of the denomination of £l, are not quoted. With the present , world overproduction, fresh oil supplies obviously are not reauired for the time being, and, in accordance with the usual practice, the well will be closed, but the new discovery will materially strengthen the position of the Anglo-Persion and Shell groups in the future.