THE GLEN POOL—ONE OF AMERICA’S OIL PRODUCING CENTRES
Space forbids my entering into details respecting the more recently developed or partially exploited fields of America, but it is safe to say that there is scarcely a single State that does not hold out hope for profitable oil development: this is evidenced by the large amounts of new capital which are to-day finding employment in regions which are only commencing their oil-field history.
There is no other oil-producing country in the world where the petroleum industry has reached such a highly organized state as in the United States. Each producing field is connected by means of underground pipe-lines with the trunk pipe-line system, by which it is possible to pump oil from the most distant fields direct to the Atlantic seaboard. Some of the principal lines are hundreds of miles in length. In another chapter I deal with this wonderful system of oil transportation: it is, therefore, unnecessary here to more than mention it en passant. The oil-refining branch of the American petroleum industry is also particularly well organized and up to date, but with this subject, too, I deal at length elsewhere.
A TYPICAL GEOLOGICAL SECTION SHOWING THE OIL SANDS
Mexico.—The oil-fields of Mexico can claim to have leapt into prominence at a far more rapid rate than any other oil-field of importance in the world. Their development has been phenomenal, and from being practically unknown sixteen years ago, they now rank as the third largest producing regions, coming but next to the United States and Russia. My object in dealing with the Mexican fields prior to referring to the Russian petroleum industry is that they may be said to form an integral part of the fields of the New Continent, and, from many points of view, are linked up with the petroleum industry of the United States. Indeed, there are several authorities who are now urging that it is to Mexico that the United States Government must look if it is to be in a position to furnish the major portion of the petroleum products required for the markets of the world. Another reason for my dealing with Mexico at the moment is that, when development operations are carried a little further, and when ocean transport facilities are available for adequately dealing with the flood of Mexican petroleum, there is not the slightest doubt that Mexico will rank as the second largest country of petroleum production. Its annual output of crude oil is, approximately, 8,000,000 tons, but even this figure in no way represents the productivity of its prolific oil-producing regions, for according to the official statement of the Mexican Government the production in 1918 represented only 10 per cent. of that possible. The Mexican wells have no parallel in the world, large as have been some of the oil-fountains in Russia.
It will be of great interest here to refer briefly to these, and though it would be impossible to detail all those Mexican wells which have ranked quite outside the limits of ordinary producers, I will touch only upon two of these remarkable oil gushers. They both were drilled on the properties owned by the well-known English firm of Pearsons, the operating company being the “Aguila” (Mexican Eagle) Company. It was in 1906 when the Company commenced active drilling operations in Northern Vera Cruz, and though these were very successful from the start, it was two years later that the famous “Dos Bocas” well came in. A heavy gas pressure developed when the rotary drill was down just over 1,800 feet, and in a few minutes the internal pressure manifested itself by bursting the wire-wrapped hose connected with the drilling apparatus. The oil then commenced to come to the surface in an immense stream, and in twenty minutes the well was beyond control. Fissures began to appear in the ground at considerable distance from the well, and through these came oil and gas. One of these fissures opened directly under the boilers, and though the fires had been drawn, the gas ignited. The position was well-nigh hopeless from the start, the well itself was throwing out an 8-inch column of oil hundreds of feet in the air. The force of the volume of oil below ground flung the heavy English drill pipe out of the well, and soon it became impossible to approach within 300 feet of the “mad gusher.” The flames of fire are said to have reached 1,000 feet in height, and inasmuch as all ground round the well had fallen into the cavity caused, they were over 50 feet in diameter. And for 58 days did this gusher burn with all the fury imaginable, its glare being seen far out at sea. Anything approaching an approximate production of oil from this well will never be made: it can safely be recorded, however, that its mad flow of oil ran into many millions of barrels, and it is placed on record that nearly 2,000,000 tons of solid earth were carried away by the force of the oil from the well’s mouth, for a crater of nearly 120,000 square metres was formed round the well.
A GUSHER OF THE MEXICAN EAGLE CO. UNDER CONTROL—A DOME BUILT OVER THE MOUTH
Toward the end of 1910 another surprise was in store for those in charge of drilling operations for the Company, for it was then that the world famous “Protero del Llano” gusher came in. This well ranks as one of the largest, if not the largest, ever associated with the petroleum industry. Its estimated daily flow was over 125,000 barrels, and within three months the well had produced over 8,000,000 barrels of crude oil.