(b) If the Government did not wish to risk public money on what had to be deemed a speculative enterprise, Messrs. S. Pearson & Son were prepared to drill, at their own risk and expense as licensees, subject to certain areas being reserved to them. The offer committed the firm to an expenditure of, possibly, £500,000.
The public spirited offer of Lord Cowdray was most thankfully accepted by the Government and, with a minimum of delay, drilling sites were marked out for the commencement of active operations.
Lord Cowdray’s geological staff particularly favoured the neighbourhood in Derbyshire, near to which Young made his first discoveries of oil, and Chesterfield was selected as headquarters for the new oil developments. The first oil well to be drilled in this country was commenced in September, 1918, at Hardstoft, near Pilsley, on the Great Central main line between Sheffield and Nottingham, and on Tuesday, 18th October, the inauguration of England’s oil industry took place there in the presence of many oil notabilities. American drilling machinery of the percussion type was installed and, in view of the great depth to which it was expected the drill would have to proceed before encountering commercial quantities of oil, the well was commenced with a diameter of 18 inches.
A depth of just over 3,000 ft. had been reached at the commencement of June, 1919, at which depth oil production started. The well was put on the pump and began its steady yield of a good grade crude oil, the production being about fifty barrels per week. Up to the time of writing (December, 1919) the well is maintaining its yield.
Other wells have been sunk in the Chesterfield area at Ironville, Heath, Renishaw, Brimington, Ridgeway and in North Staffordshire and Scotland, but so far the success met with is not promising, though it is quite possible that commercial oil may be encountered.
Private enterprise has also commenced the sinking of a well at Kelham, Nottinghamshire, near a site where, many years ago, small quantities of oil were found in an experimental coal bore. Here, however, no definite result has been attained. The Company—The Oilfields of England, Ltd.—is operating under a drilling license from the Government under which the Government may take over the properties on a valuation should commercial oil be found.
Let us now briefly turn to the other aspect of the question of the production of petroleum in England—that is, of producing oils from the treatment of the bituminous shales. There are several sources from which petroleum can be obtained in this country by distillation, and these are: (1) oil-shales, (2) coal, (3) cannel coals and torbanites, (4) blackband ironstones, (5) lignite, and (6) peat.
Though in the past the oil shales of England have not been recognized as possessing great potential value, comparatively recent discoveries have proved that at home we have enormous deposits of oil shales of remarkable richness. These are, so far as at present proved, situate in Norfolk and at short distance from King’s Lynn. Dr. Forbes Leslie, F.R.G.S., has for many years carried out a number of tests as to the quality and quantity of the shales in the Norfolk field, and as a result of his work it has been proved that upwards of twenty miles square, there is an area in Norfolk underlaid with rich oil-shales. From a geological point of view the shales are remarkable, for they uniformly lie within 300 ft. of the surface, several of the seams being but a few feet below ground. Their prolific nature may be judged from the fact that in sinking test wells to depths of 300 ft. in various parts of the field, over 150 ft. of this oil shale has been drilled through, and it is thus established beyond all possible doubt that at home we have all the materials at hand for a huge home production of oil.
The whole of the field has been secured by English Oilfields, Ltd., a company which, by reason of the influential interest behind it, is bound to be strikingly successful in its future developments in Norfolk.
The crude oil content of the shales is surprisingly great, for these shales yield approximately 60 gallons of oil per ton, or considerably more than double as much as the Midlothian shales. Dr. Forbes Leslie asserts that there is already proved over 2,000,000,000 tons of shale on the properties in Norfolk, and after having carefully inspected the whole of the fields on many occasions, I think Dr. Leslie’s statement may be taken as very conservative, for after all it is only a question of a simple sum of calculation which allows one to arrive at the figures above quoted.