THE OIL INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1924, Page 6

THE OIL INDUSTRY.

BOOMING IN TEXAS. IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS. BUILDING A NEW TOWN. V ith benzine, asphalt and general cargo from Texas ports, the ReardonSmith steamer Royal City (5411 tons) arrived at New Plymouth yesterday afternoon and anchored in the stream. She will berth to-day on the departure of the Port Kembla. The Royal City loaded at Port Neches and Port Arthur in Texas. Her cargo at these ports comprised oil and asphalt. She sailed from Port Arthur on October 23 for New York, and sailed from New York on November G, and called into Norfolk to bunker. She cleared Norfolk on November 8, and Panama on November 19. The whole trip was uneventful. Fine weather was encountered almost all the way.

“The oil industry is booming in Texas,” remarked an officer of the steamer. “While we were in Port Neches and Port Arthur there was no talk of the oilfields running dry,” he continued. “Everybody seemed to be prospering, and the oil districts were hives of activity.

“Among the most important and recent developments in connection with the oil industry is the birth of a new town —Port Neches. This little mode! city is inland from ‘Port Arthur, and is situated on the River Neches. The river is connected to the sea by a canal, which, I believe, was built by Dutch labour. The town itself was built by the Texas Oil Company. It is well laid out, and the employees of the company are well housed. It is really a model town now, but it is growing every day, and should some day become a great city. The people pay a minimum rent, so that the houses remain the property of the company. There is a wharf at Port Neches, and many boats load there.

“There is oil everywhere. Oil oozes out of the of the canal and gu*hes are to be seen- on all sides. We shad rather a peculiar experience while travelling on the canal, which is extremely narrow'. There are many twists and turns, and the ship mn into the banks many times; but the oil mud did no harm, and the ship just ran off the bi-nks like a billiard ball would run off the cushion of a billiard table.

‘“The crude products of the oil are turned out at Port Neches, as a rule, while the finer products are finished at Port Arthur. The output from Port Arthur each day is something like 30,000 cases, and this has to be taken away almost as soon as it is cased, for the storage accommodation is nearly always taxed. The manner in which the ships are loaded is something to marvel at, especially for anyone who has not been there. No human labour is required from the time a case leaves the factory until it arrives in the hold of the ship. The cases come down by leather belts, and when they roach the ship's side are conveyed to the hold by a spiral. They are then shot out in four different directions on rail*, and men stow them away. Our ship loaded 35,000 cases in a day, and all the labour used in the loading was two gangs of 24 men each to stow the cases. This is by no*means a record.”