Show petroleum development in foreign coun countries tr ies the worldwide activity in tile the search for petroleum petroleum deposits of commercial importance tance which characterized the year 1913 continued unabated during the early part lf bf 1914 during the latter part of the year development in proved areas was greatly curtailed curtailed and exploration work postponed on on account of the european war and the enormous overproduction of oil in the united states and mexico S john D northrop of the united states geological survey su arvey is authority for the following statement discussing the petroleum developments in foreign countries in 1914 which ich has just been made public by the survey north america CANADA the productive fields fie ids of ontario and new brunswick continued to f furnish ur the declining petroleum output of the dominion Domini oll though considerable effort was made to extend the boundaries of the productive areas new production sufficient to offset the decline in older wells was obtained only in the belle river field ontario tarl 0 good gas wells continue to be found in the tilbury district ontario but attempts to retard the declining oil output were uns unsuccessful ess ful wildcat activity with apparently undue interest centered in the vicinity of calgary alberta was the feature of the year in the western provinces the discovery of small quantities of high grade petroleum at depths dept lis of 1562 and 2700 feet in the D ingman dingman well southwest of calgary created a hysterical rush for mining locations in the area drilling was commenced at a number of points southwest and northwest of calgary and though proving the presence of small quantities of heavy oil in certain areas of favorable structure failed to demonstrate the aue true extent or value of the field before the end nd of the year in northern alberta the lack of transportation facilities retarded the development of the promising oil strikes of the athabasca oils ltd near fort mckay in III british columbia encouraging oil indications in the valley of flathead river and in III the vicinity of revelstoke Revel stoke kootenai county and at pitt meadows new westminster county near vancouver resulted in more lore or less prospect drilling t in III saskatchewan interest was centered t ose jaw where good oil showings were Ve found nd but included additional projects at regina battleford Batt leford and saskatoon and a souris valley where oil seepages see pages occur ear I 1 roche percee MEXICO early in 1914 field operations we the on oil districts of mexico were very ac ave e emore more so in the northern fields at pa from U S geological survey buco and teopila topila than in the southern fields where the work was interrupted by the belligerent li gerent political factions the bringing in of an enormous gusher by the corona oil company dutch shell at panuco on january 11 ll became the signal for a pronounced increase of work in the northern fields where as in the southern fields the lack of adequate storage facilities tended to hamper developments greatly work in all districts was abruptly curtailed and in many places terminated by the exodus of operators and workmen beginning in april although the subsequent activities of the warring factions resulted in no great damage to ito the petroleum interests the resulting conditions of unstable government prevented the resumption of more than nominal activity in the oil fields up to the end of the year late in the year the resumption of local oil consumption by the mexican railroads and mining industries served to revive activity to some extent at panuco and topila jopila of more than passing interest was the fire which raged about the famous potrero del llano no 4 well of the mexican eagle oil company during the latter part of the year seepages See pages of oil escaping to the surface after the well had been capped were ignited by lightning on august 14 and up to the close of the year the fire though confined to a small area had defied all efforts to extinguish it during the year the panuco f field was extended to the southwest and the topila jopila field to the west wildcatting at rancho el chapopote Chapo pote revealed promising indications of an oil field near campeche campiche Cam peche state of cam peche A four still topping plant was installed by the standard oil company at tampico and construction work was started by the tampico panuco valley tram ways company on a ave twenty nty five fivemile anile railroad connecting tampico with the panuco oil field central america and west indies examination of the petroleum indications in honduras resulted in the formation of the honduras oil company financed by honduras capital which is reported to have obtained concessions in the departments of antida yoro and comayagua ma yagua by legislative decree the government of san salvador has granted to alfredo leon a native of austria hungary hungary the exclusive privilege of conducting geologic studies of the mineral resources ot of san salvador for one year and of exploiting I 1 tin g them for a period of thirty years subject to a 25 per cent royalty and to tile the reversion cfall of all property to the government at the end of the concession period drilling for oil in cuba continued in the dicinit vicinity y of cardenas the testing of promising structure and oil indications in barbados was retarded by the failure of the legislature to enact laws providing for such exploration developments at trinidad resulted in a marked increase in production over previous years despite the deterring effects of meager storage facilities which together with the influence of the european war served to greatly curtail operations toward the end of the year south america COLOMBIA the discovery of petroleum and natural gas at aubara near the imports imbor tant caribbean seaport of barranquilla Barr anquilla indicates the development of an important oil field in close proximity to the panama canal ECUADOR investigations of the petroleum indications along the coast and in inthe the mountains near quito by a dutch syndicate suggest the possible development ot of petroleum resources in the near future I 1 PERU developments in the proved oil fields of peru were without notable incident the production showed a moderate increase during the early part of the year necessitating the erection of additional at zorritos Zorri tos B OLIVIA BOLIVIA geol geologic ogle investigations in the area beaw between een the incahuasi and ranges have shown the presence of a considerable sid erable area of prospective oil land south of sucre and the reported acquisition of petroleum concessions in that region indicates that tile the area will the ibe thoroughly tested CHILE several companies were organized in santiago to test certain districts in which surface indications of petroleum have been known for many years ARGENTINA in the comodoro comodora Com odoro via oil district in southern argentina hectares acres of land has been reserved by the government of which hectares acres is being exploited by the state legislation providing for the exploitation of the petroleum deposits in com odoro rivadavia Riva davia is now under consideration by the argentine congress VENEZUELA work was continued by the caribbean petroleum company on the east coast of lake maracaibo in the I 1 low sand field opened late in 1913 eurasia RUSSIA on Ap sheron peninsula the oil fields in tho the vicinity of daku baku oweda sh a a steady decline development being retarded d by a strike of the oil field workmen which lasted from june 11 to july 31 in spite of the effects of tile the strike and the immedi abely succeeding mobilization of the russian army which involved a great number of oil field workers the production of the baku fields made substantial headway during the later part of the year at glosny in northeastern caucasus extensions of productive area yielded a agrati tying increase in in production at production decreased in spite of significant oil strikes in the district northwest of the developed portion of the field inthe in the relatively new ural emba amba or ural caspian area the DOS sor field attracted the greatest attention tout but minor activity was evident in some forty other fields scattered over an area of square miles east of the mouth of ural river A refinery at Bol shaia Ra kusha near guriev commenced operations in january on the east side of the caspian sea in the ferghina Fer ghana valley turkestan Turk estan developments in the new sel gokh field resulted early in the year in a production which surpassed that of the old Tchi district turkestan Turk estan developments in island were nominal ROUMANIA despite ithe increasingly active drilling campaign which characterized doumanian Rou manian developments in the early part of the year and resulted in notable western and southwestern extensions in the bana district and in the discovery of deeper lying productive strata in the same area the net production of the country registered a decline this decline which was not in any sense due to the exhaustion ha of the productive fields resulted in part from interruptions incident to tha mobilization of the doumanian Rou manian army but chiefly from the conditions of overproduction arising from restricted markets and low prices consequent on the european war which involved the countries that bound roumania on all sides notwithstanding these retarding influences the later part of the year recorded slight increases of productive areas in the barcol and laid districts AUSTRIA HUNGARY in the galician fields active development early in the year resulted in establishing a southern extension of the boryslaw field which clearly indicates the ultimate connection of that field with the development at nica operations in the oil fields during the later part of the year were much curtailed as the adjacent territory became the theater of conflict between russian and austrian troops in hungary the discovery of oil was reported in the village of Morva or district of Sz enice county SPAIN promising surface indications indication of petroleum in the area about cadiz in southern spain were examined at the expense of the spanish government in northern spain near santander petroleum in small quantities was discovered in a boring made for salt TURKEY plans tor for the active development of the imperfectly operated oil fields in the tigris and euphrates valleys in the vicinity of 0 f and bagdad were pos postponed I 1 po by the european war in palestine prospecting was active at makarem Ma karim in the area between the river jordan and deraa adjacent to the hedjazi railway by the turkish petroleum company a successor in interest to the syrian exploration company PERSIA interest in persian developments was greatly stimulated by the decision of the british government announced may 22 to acquire a majority interest in the anglo persian oil company and thereby secure for the admiralty undisputed access to valuable oil lands adjacent to the persian gulf the effect eff act of the european this agreement was not apparent at the end of the year INDIA operations in the and Yen angat districts in burma were nominal the search for deeper sands in the first two districts furnishing variable results not altogether satisfactory wildcatting in burma resulted in the opening of a promising new field at kiendat township in the upper Chin dwin district CHINA under the terms of an agreement entered into by the chinese government and the standard oil company of new york a joint investigation of the pe resources in and near autin fu ghensi chengte and chihli was undertaken JAPAN interest was centered in the akita oil district on the west coast of nippon near the north end of the island where on may 25 and september 1 gush ers credited with flows of several thousand barrels daily were brought in by the nippon oil company in fourteen other known oil bearing localities in japan no developments of note were reported oceania in borneo sumatra and java no notable additions to productive area were made in the northeastern portion of new guinea papua petroleum deposits were reported near estape and in the southeastern rn portion of the island oil indications of great promise were found by australian geologists on the western flank of the albert mountains between the river pu gurari aari rari on the north and yule island on the south NEW ZEALAND interest was centered in the faranki district new pa plymouth north island where late in the year four wells producing oil simultaneously were believed to indicate the presence of a consid erable quantity of oil in the locality on south island the shell interests abandoned a test well at feet on account of the presence of metamorphic slate africa ALGERIA the test well of the algerian oil fields at abd er rahim was sus in april 1914 at a reported depth of meters on account of parted casing A second test started in march was located at lessila Mes sila EGYPT the activity of the anglo angio egypt ta tian a i n oilfields Oil fields ltd resulted in the completion of a number of creditable wells during the year in the gemsch and hurtada fields SOMA LILAND promising oil indications were found in british Soma liland on the south side of the gulf of aden |