300 Oil Wells in Great Britain
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Research by British Technologists and Geologists Results in Production Rate of 100,000 Tons per Year
By Major W. H. Goddard,
Nunfich.E.. M.hist-Pet.
1% /ANY readers, especially those who take an interest in lvi oil production and supply, will be most agreeably surprised to know that at long last we actually have in Great Britain a very promising, producing oil field with—at the moment—at least 300 producing wells, and others being drilled as fast as possible.
'Before giving fuller details, it is as well to hark back to the 1914-1918 period of the first world war. During this time a very costly and serious effort was made to find oil in this country, and some half a dozen deep wells were drilled. Unfortunately, the results were most disappointing; in fact, only one well produced oil. This was at Hardstoft in Derbyshire, and the quantity it produced was insignificant—only a few tons per week, although the oil was of very high quality_ It is believed that even to this day this well still produces about the same amount as originally_ Our petroleum technologists and geologists most reluctantly were obliged to come to the conclusion that it was almost a hopeless task tryihg to find a good supply of oil and that it would result in only a great and useless expenditure of time and money—that was 26 years ago. It is most gratifying to report that during those 26 years enormous progress has been made in every branch of geology and petroleum technology, as applied to the discovery of oil-bearing formations and promising substrata. Entirely new systems and methods have been evolved; these include seismographic, geophysical, geochemical, intense study of the relations between surface structures and the substrata at depth, and many other methods.
Naturally, every country contains its own peculiar and particular formations, and each one requires detailed and concentrated study. This science of discovering promising oil formatioes with the least amount of work and expense and the highest degree of accuracy is indeed a complicated one, but, as already mentioned, enormous progress has been made since the past war.
We are, of course, concerned mostly with our own problem in Great Britain, and it can now he stated that the magnificent results reported were due mostly to the seismic method. This is actually the creation of a series of artificial earthquakes by means of explosive charges fired by electricity at the bottom of holes drilled to loo to 150 ft. deep. Very accurate observation, taken with delicate instruments at a. certain radius of the holes in all directions and recorded carefully, enable our geologists to indicate the most likely locations in which to plant the drilling outfit. Naturally, before all this takes place, the geologists have to indicate the main area in the country in which the seismic work has to start, and this is where the greatest responsibility lies.
For security reasons the actual location of this new oil field has to be kept secret, but it is most satisfactory to know that the selection by our experts of this area, and later the selection-of the location of the wells, as indicated by the seismographic methods, were extraordinarily successful.
Quality and Quantity are Satisfactory First of all, it is important, to reprirt that the quality of the oil being produced is very good indeed; in fact, it ranks with the best in the world and yields the whole range of refinery products. At the moment the production from some 390 wells is at the rate of about 100,000 tons per year, roughly some 25 million gallons_ of crude oil, but the field is being increased all the time and it may not be long before the present output is doubled. One most satisfactory result is, that, even to-day, this production will cancel the voyages of perhaps 12 oceangoing tankers, which also means that the lurking U-boats will have 12 valuable targets fewer to fire at.
Th6 depth at which the oil has been found varies; actually, there have been logged four different oil horizons, but one hole has been drilled to the great depth of 7,300 It. The drilling is carried out by gangs of highly expert drillers from Texas, U.S.A., a very famous oil-producing State with' many important oil fields and which supply a great part of the U.S.A. production. It is said that our present production is sufficient to keep a heavy bomber fleet in the air, which is a. most gratifying feeling.
The field now extends over an area of some 81 square miles of country which in 1939 was mostly rich farm land. Already• some 25 miles of metalled roads have been built to serve the field, which also contains storage tanks, pipe lines, and power lines in all directions, also a railway siding to deal with the rail tank cars which carry the oil away to the refineries.
One is gratified to know that the oil was discovered by British scientists and engineers trained in the great oilfields of Iran (Persia), where the powerful Anglo-Persian (AngloIranian now) Oil Co. owns enormous oil concessions over a wide area.
In recently written articles the writer mentioned that Persia and the Middle East would probably turn out to be the area from which the world's principal supply of oil would come. Reports are now to hand concerning "vast schemes of development for Middle East oil." To mention only one item, the joint holdings of the Standard Oil Co. ef California and the Texas Co., through the Arabian, American and Bahrein petroleum companies, Comprise about 278;372,000 acres on the west side of the Persian Gulf, all of which, except about 100,000 acres, are in Saudi Arabia. Enormous expenditure is outlined for drilling, refineries, and trunk pipe lines in this extraordinarily rich oil country.
We Must Not be Too Optimistic This rather sudden discovery in Great Britain of a precious and very valuable oil field, following years of an almost settled conviction that this country would never be an oilproducing nue of any importance, is apt to make us overoptimistic about the future. We must therefore keep a sense of proportion and realize that, although the start has been most encouraging and successful, Great Britait is a small country and must, perforce, have its limitations in the oil-producing field
. Although certain limited localities—as we have now discovered—can, and do, produce oil, there are other areas which definitely will never achieve this. Thus we have to curb our -enthusiastic optimism, which might lead us to hope that one day we might be entirely independent of foreign oil supplies. What we may certainly hope for, and even expect, is that we shall be able to reduce our imports very considerably, and that in itself is a very great satisfaction and a great benefit economically.
To put the matter into cold figures, in the year 1938 the last year for which figures are available), the total imports into the U.K. of oil products and oil amounted to some 3,200 millions of gallons. To-day this figure will be considerably increased, as, quite apart from war demands, our civil oil requirements are always steadily rising. Thus, with our present 25 millions of gallons yearly production, we shall require about 130 times this amount to be independent. It will at once be evident that the most we can hope for is the reduction of imports already mentioned.
Another series point to bear in mind is that we do not know how long our present wells will last; i.e. what amount of oil is available underground. It may last for some years, or it may peter out comparatively soon. Only time will tell vs the answer to this vital question. For the present. anyhow, we have some oil and a promise of a great de& more, and for this we must be very thankful.
As an item of oil interest, the writer recently reported that a well had been drilled to a depth of 2i mites—a record. Since that date, in West Texas, a new record has been set up with a well drilled down to 15,255 ft., which is only 586 ft. short of three miles—an extraordinary achievement.