THE FIRING OF RUSSIA’S OIL FIELDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 74

THE FIRING OF RUSSIA’S OIL FIELDS.

A GREAT SACRIFICE. A scant paragraph in the daily papers and a picture in a magazine, and the general public gives no further consideration to the fact that Russia’s strategic retirement necessitated a general firing of those wonderful and but half-developed oil fields which extend over wide distances along the Austro-Hungarian frontiers. A little consideration will, however, reveal the startling commercial loss not only to Russia, but perhaps to Europe at large. Neither is the loss for the present only ; possibly the fires so started may last for generations ; some of the shallower springs will probably be lost for ever. In economics and practical sciences Russia has fallen behind the other great Powers of Europe; her agricultural methods are, for the most part, somewhat primitive, and in engineering and railroad construction she has been content to leave herself almost entirely in the hands of German contractors. Her oil industry she has, however, most carefully guarded, and has kept in the first place in the matter of its scientific development, being at the outbreak of the war quite abreast of America, if not ahead. Baku has been renowned for its oil springs from earliest Persian history, and pilgrimages were made to the centres of incandescent gas springs by bands of fire worshippers from the time that Xerxes was fired with the ambition of annexing Europe. Baku passed to Russia during the reign of Peter the Great, was restored to Persia after his death, and after changing hands several times became the property of Russia again early in the nineteenth century. So far the fields in the Caspian region are net in immediate danger, fortunately for Europe, for petroleum is already ns important a factor in the world’s transport as either coal or iron, and the oil bids fair to outdistance either as a rich commercial asset. From many of the Baku springs the flow averages more than a million gallons daily, and in the most prolific region of wells the derricks erected look in the distance like a forest. Millions of pounds’ worth of machinery have been placed on the field, and it is estimated that the drills total a length of 1000 miles. Up to 1900 many of the wells weve worked by primitive pumping plants, others by a more primitive bailer—a huge iron bucket, which was raised and lowered bv manual labour.

The number of forms m which petro leum reached the centres of commerce, the operations of the Great Standard Oil Trust, and a growing economic consciousness on the part of Russia, contributed to the great leap forward in development. In 1903 the total output from all the Russian oil fields reached 2,954,000,000 gallons ; in 1907 the yield had increased to 3,164,000,000, the increase being largely due to the opening up of the ideposits on the Austro Hungarian frontiers. These had formerly been neglected in a sense ; any efforts at systematic and scientific development had" up till then been spas medic.

Russian investors were at the outbreak of the war pretty confident that in these central fields they had a source of wealth not second to the Baku fields. Among the chief forms in which the fine Russian petroleum reaches the markets of Europe are gasolene, petrol, benzine, paraffin, vaseline, shizoline, and benzol, the latter being a \ ery volatile oil and largely used —indeed, almost indispensable—in the manufacture of rubber, as it is the best rubber solvent yet discovered. Then naphtha and water oil also have important parts to play in other manufactures. This list takes no account of an array of by-products associated with the petroleum wells, such as sulphur and certain dyes extracted from the rand springs, or mud volcanoes, which are a feature of the oil spring bearing country in Central Europe. When the history of the war comes to be written without passion, as some later day it will be written, it will, beyond doubt, be shown that Russia’s rapid commercial development, her capture of a tremendous trade about the Caspian, her diversion of the Persian trade, which had formerly passed by way of India—that all these things stirred the jealous passion of her neighbours, and began the smouldering fires of international hatreds and misunderstandings which have at the first breach leapt into the wild fury of flame now destroying Europe.

Englancl herself had qualms and misgivings when the Indian trade was transferred, and retrospective reading and research shows that neither France nor England trusted Russia, the more so that, careless in her other enterprises, the awakening nation of the north jealously guarded her oil fields, keeping them almost exclusively in the hands of her own investors.

In 1889 a party of English speculators having vainly tried to acquire Russian property, set themselves to gain a footing in the * Rumanian oil fields, less known, and very imperfectly developed, yet promising 'excellently under more efficient treatment. The deal was almost concluded. when Rumania, suddenly withdrew her concessions ; and she, too, has followed Russia in keeping this mineral wealth close for her own people. The annual yield of the Rumanian wells in 1807 reached a total of 62,000,000 gallons, and from a small, poor town, one of the oldest in Europe, Balakany has grown to a huge city, with startling contrasts in old and new, where perhaps the most curiously mixed population in the world adds to its picturesque charm for the tourist. It is recounted that in its market place one can hear not only every language, but also almost every dialect of Europe and of Western Asia.

Austria-Hungary has equally promising fields, also largely increasing the annual

output, from more scientific methods being adopted. The figures for Germany and Austria during the years ISO 3 and 1907 were : —Austria, 1903, 156,800,000 gallons, and in 1907, 283,700,000 gallons; Germany for 1903 produced 15,600.000 gallons, and in 1907 she had increased to an output of 26,000,000 gallons, and by a new treatment of shales the latter country has since 1907 almost doubled her output. It will therefore be plain that neither Germany nor Austria is likely to be short of petrol during the war, as she reserves her entire supply for war purposes. Turkey also has some resources, but statistics are not available, nor has it been the practice of Turkey to let the world know too much about her commercial affairs.

Prosaic as the subject of mineral oil seems on the surface, about the early history of Baku circle most poetic legends. The fire worshippers found in the splendid glow of incandescent gas, formerly erupted, a holy of holies, and the shrines were quite numerous. The incandescent gas ceased to be continuously erupted in the late eighteenth century, though occasionally an outburst startles the modern -workman.

Modern appliances, the whirr of machinery, the roar of traction engines, the fields of derricks, and an armament of workpeople have, however, quite robbed the old city of its poetic features in proportion as they have contributed to the wealth and comfort of twentieth century civilisation.