Oil Position Improving
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By MajoiNV1;3 stiloddard, eG THE improved position regarding supplies and reserves of oil, which the writer has mentioned in previous notes, continues to be more than maintained; in fact, the oil news can be said to be very good. Causes for alarm about the possibility of our supplies failing are more remote now than for many years past, in spite of the fact that stocks deplenished by war demands had to be made good.
In 1945 the U.S.A. produced 1,711,000,000 barrels, which is about 32,000,000 more than in 1944. The peak daily output was nearly 5,000,000 barrels, achieved in August last, but after that there was a decline to about 4,500,000 barrels per day. Texas was the chief producer, with more than twice the output of California, which was second, with Oklahoma third.
It has been estimated that between 1944 and 1950 2,000,000,000 barrels of oil a year are essential if demands are to be satisfied. This annual figure was exceeded in 1945, with the huge total of 2.275,000,000 barrels discovered.
The leading States, as regards reserves. are Texas, California, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and these, together with the Rocky Mountain States, possessed 91.4 per cent. of the 1945 reserves. Texas has actually over half the total American reserves. More than 400 new pools were found in the U.S.A. in 1945, and extensions made to 100 fields.
In 1945, 26,879 wells were completed, and the 1946 programme calls for 23,171 wells. During the first two months of 1946 the completion rate was 13.1 per cent, above the figures for the same period in 1945.
Thus, in spite of having been the world's greatest oil supplier for some 87 years, it would appear that the U.S.A. will be able to maintain this important position for some long time yet. All the Caribbean countries, the Middle East, and even the wells in those European countries which produce oil— Germany, France, and Rumania— show increasing production.
In the first nine months of 1945, Iran (Persia) produced 95,421,032 barrels, and in the whole of 1944 the total was 92,919,711.
Some crude oils, notably those found in one area of West Texas, contain harmful amounts of corrosive elements which attack the steel tanks and pipes to an alarming extent. During the war the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Co., Ltd., developed a new plastic material called Resoweld, which is a liquid thermoplastic ream.
When applied as a coating for steel tanks and pipes—or even to cement or wood—it acts as an efficient anti-cOrrosion material. It forms a firmly bonded coating which is flexible enough to withstand bending at 100 degrees F. without chipping, and rupture caused by movement or blows.
It is highly resistant to a variety of acids, is a non-conductor of electricity, and arrests bacterial action. It successfully resisted corrosion from crude oil which contained 10 per cent. salt water and a high sulphur content.