PETROLEUM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144129, 26 June 1913, Page 5

PETROLEUM.

THE TRINIDAD FIELDS,

Mr. E. H. Cunningham Craig, who i eosntly returned to England from Trinidad, supplies an English oil journal with some notes on that field. Much interest and not a little excitement, he says, has been caused by the taking over of tho Trinidad Oilfields, Lid., by the United British West Indian Petroleum Syndicate, Ltd. The company had just brought in one or two wells which gave promise ot being largo producers, and to the general public, and perhaps also to many ot the shareholders, it appeared that revenue and expenditure would at last he made to balance. But to those who had watched tho work of this company from the first, tho news did not come as a surprise: something of tho kind, had appeared inevitable for a long time. THE ASPHALT LAKE COMPANY. Meanwhile much more important developments have perhaps been overlooked. The Trinidad Lake Petroleum Company, which has pursued an enterprising policy from the beginning, has done more to give confidence in Trinidad oil-producing capabilities than any other company or syndicate operating in lire colony, The bringing-in cl' the famous well No. oT was not unanticipated, but tho great production from it could hardly have been expected, Tho flow from this well was for several days at the rate of from 17.000 to' “O'OOO barrels per day, and for some six weeks, in spite of the inroads of sand, the flow did not fall below 2000 barrels. Now the well has steadied down to a production of about 3CO barrels nor day, which is. likely to be main-, laiuecl. lint the important point is that this well struck tho Rio Blanco oil sand almost at the bottom of a fsynelino. The oil is too heavy, and is present in too great quantity to bo replaced by water, aiid subsequently wells drilled near No.. 37 have ,proved that, under certain conditions, the synclincs are likely to lie ns productive ot the heavier oils as the anticlinal flexures. ANOTHER NOTABLE WELL. 1 Another synclino, that between tho northern and west-central anticlines, has since been tested by tho same company with remarkable results, some 5000 barrels of oil being blown through the top of the derrick the jjrst day. It had been suggested in official reports published some six years ago that this shallow syncline should bo tested, but such an astonishing result could hardly have been predicted. Tho sanding up of wells drilled into those thick masses, of oilsand will always bo a difficulty, but methods of dealing with the rush of sand will he devised, and failures to produce wells that have been brought m successfully arc likely to bo fewer and fewer as time goes on. The important point to be noted is that these latest wells of the Trinidad Lake. Petroleum Company open up and prove a very largo area which bad not previously been reckoned as even probably productive. THE LIGHTER OILS. - Turning to the lighter and more valuable oils of the island,.very encouraging results are 'also apparent. The Icacos Development'Syndicate' has drilled a remarkably successful first well. Several shows of oil were obtained at different , depths, and at something less than 900 ft. an oilsand rather more than 00ft. in thickness was encountered. No water was mot With in the drilling, and tho oil has a gravity of 0.850 and a petrol percentage of 2C. The oil is, in fact, very similar to that being pumped daily from the wells of the Venezuelan Oilfields Exploration Syndicate at Barrackpnro on tho Central (Western) Anticline, though the oilsnnds arc of entirely-different age. The Central Oilfields, Ltd., continues to produce a very high grade oil from some fifteen shallow wells, and has a ready market for all the petrol distilled. Tile syndicate operating in Silver Stream Estate has drilled two shallow wells, both of which are profitably productive. The oil is of* intermediate grade, hut a more valuable petroleum will probably ho found at greater depth. Besides these recent developments ono hoars of location being made on several estates, where tho prospects of production are so good as to he practically certain, and even in the Mayaro district prospecting work is in progress with every hope ot success. REFINERY AND PIPE LINES. A central refinery and a few trunk pipe-lines are badly wanted to enable the production to bo handled. There is no longer any fear of production being insufficient, and tho local demand for fuel oil is‘increasing steadily. Four sugar factories have been using oil fuel, afld it is to be hoped that tho Government railway and Gulf steamers will before long see tho advantages of increasing their efficiency, ami at tho same time encourage tho local industry by discarding expensive imported fuel in favour of oil. All things considered, though progress has not been so rapid as could bo wished, it has been steady; and all oilmen who are working in Trinidad arc. confident as to its future as an oilfield. The sceptics who have consistently decried the little colony, which few, it any of them, have ever visited, will probably have to reconsider their hastily, formed opinions in tho near future. A COMPARISON WITH TARANAKI. It is' interesting to note how closely tho history of oil in Taranaki assimilates with that of Trinidad. In his work on “Oil Fields of tho Empire,” published in 1910, Mr. J. D. Henry deals with Trinidad at considerable length. Ho visited the island about six years ago, and as n result of his investigations wrote: “I. know of no island m tho Empire which promises, in the matter of time, to come before Trinidad in tho production of reliable supplies of liquid fuel for the Navy.” In 1867 a syndicate was formed,to prospect for oil-in Trinidad. It was in 18(35 that Messrs. Carter and-Co. commenced. digging a shaft at Moturoa for a similar purpose. The Trinidad syndicate obtained promising indications, as also did Messrs. Carter and Co. here. At Trinidad a larger company was formed, so also here. At Trinidad oil was actually found and rose 180 ft, in pipes put down to a depth of 280 ft., but after drilling several other shallow wells operations were abandoned. Hero several wolls were drilled to .vh-rious depths, but in spite of tho fact that a little oil was won the enterprise was abandoned. At Trinidad there was a hiatus—a blank of thirty years—in tho history of petroleum enterprise. In Taranaki there was a gap of a little more than twenty years before Sir Julius Vogel and others formed a company (in 1890) in London with Mr. Charles Marvin as managing director. In Trinidad it was in 1900 that efforts to find oil were ■renewed. In both cases year after year went by with more or less spasmodic effort being made to find payable oil,

and the history of both fields -contains examples of disappointments and flattered hopes' alternating. About six years ago* as already stated, Mr. J. D. Henry visited Trinidad and reported so hopefully of the island as a petroleum field that renewed vigour was imported into the prospecting with the results described lit .Mr. Cunningham Craig. Early in Hill. Mr. Henry also visited New’ Plymouth, and with the same result, renewed confidence and vigour in the operations. In- one respect Trinidad has got ahead of Taranaki—probably partly on account of its being nearer to the world’s centre, partly because of the oil being found at shallower depths—it has brought in gushers. It is not, however, too much to hope that Taranaki will.before long have wells yielding their hundreds of barrels daily, and possibly thousands. In another respect Taranaki is ahead of Trinidad, in that it lias already a refinery, and it will he noted that Mr. Cunningham Craig speaks of the dillicnlty facing the Trinidad producers, in that they are now producing large quantities of oil without the means of refining it.