Show IL U S authority sees ample motor fuel for long future M H A R RY H HILL H A PR is f s W I 1 no air WORKERS IN GAS MASKS AT AN OIL WELL Z S fee MR HILLS au 6 IMPROMPTU SKETCH OF experimental MENTAL OIL AN OIL DOME SHALE RE REDUCTION PLANT the rh ca U B S bureau of mines is confident that motor fuel supplies will be ample for many years vears to meet all needs of the count countr rys vs millions of automobiles harry ir nw chief petroleum engineer of the bureau here tells the reasons for this convection and sketches the advances ad in industrial methods which justify his hia opinions by HARRY H HILL united states bureau of mines NE reason why there is no reason 0 ONE to worry greatly about motor fuel tor for a long time ahead Is that people are worrying about it interest ip in such a question at the right time to la the best beat insurance aga against inErt disaster the president and the federal oil corporation board have done dona what was needed at al the right time wl we e know that most petroleum has come from rather limited areas and that oven from these only a small proportion has been taken out oil produced by gas pressure pres eure capable cap aible of lifting it to the surta surface ce when we drill holes Is but a small proportion atall of all the oil contained in the sands even from the best pools recovery by the old methods Is small perhaps one halt half in the most favorable conditions oftener onIx th or one seventh or one oneto tenth nth dut but a considerable part ot of what still remains in the ground can ibe recovered by methods now established dished as ae technically and economically practicable producing oil from coal and and by mining the oil bearing sands Is entirely possible experiments are going on in these directions and it we e yer ever ha have ve to tall fall back on these resources reyer reever we willbe will be ready for a long time however the present methods method 3 ot of exploration and drilling with improving processes to assure larger recoveries are likely to suffice an oil dome illustrated I 1 dm am ho he draughtsman but maybe I 1 can draw soni something ething that will help ex plain heres a rough drawing of an oil dome th the shaded part at the bottom Is a deposit ot of oil bearing sands with an impervious rock stratum albone A wildcatter wild catter drilled the hole AB A B and gas pressure caused oil and g gas to flow alter a while the gas pressure sufficient to keep up ah the e 11 flow ow and they pumped until ultimately even this ceased producing nevertheless most ot of the oil was st still ill lefts left to the sand grains then the operator drilled the well CD C 0 D which flowed tor for a time but an most ost of at the oil was still down there in the sand IS if the gas pressure could toe be restored more would flow so the operator injects gas gaa into one well restoring the pressure and causing the oil to resume reaume flowing from the other after a time the flow win will stop again but still much ot of the oil will bo be left in some fields it has haa been possible to obtain additional amounts ot of oil by introducing water in some ot of the wells and forcing the oil to others othera the addition of a chemical such as aa soda ash aeb to the water may assist in removing the oil from the sand grains but neither plain water nor water containing chemicals should be introduced into an oil sand except as aa a last resort for or it is likely that the water which travels through the tha sand will get to the open wells wella ahead ot of the oil and when the flow flaw Is resumed under pressure water will come out lEvery everything thing saved nowadays Nowa daye the gas gaa escaping from aa oil well carries carrie with it a proportion of gasoline which in the old days was lost nowadays it le I 1 extracted the gas and saved while the dry gas can bo be forced back into the ground to maintain pr pressure eure ono ot of the menaces to most oil pools is the inflow ot of subterranean water water flows through the oil anda sanda s castor thanell th than anoll oil and by surrounding jing the bottom ot of the wall azzo the oil out how to shut oft off til the 1 e water and permit the oil to is a problem with which the engineers havo have long worked they have made great bro progress gross and so increased recoveries roco verlea in earlier times most oil producers carefully guarded all information about their wells and experiences but latterly there is cooperation in these matters geologists and petroleum engineers once derid derided edby by the arao practical oil men aro are more and more accepted as guides and mentors now knowledge la Is constantly increasing ro co veries As aa to mining for fop oil in lorraine Lorr alne they havo have dug shafts down to the oil bands and actually brought tho the sands out like coal from a mine but its costly another mining process Is to sink a shaft to the tha oil sands sanda and from its bottom drive tun ela in all directions through the sands from these tunnels small perforated pipe are driven into the sands which drain the oil out of the sands it flows to larger pipes back at the toot oot of 0 the shaft and thence la is pumped out this s requires installing an expensive plant but in some fields the high recovery that la is assured might justify the cost coat I 1 understand the process s about to bo be in a few fields in this country some companies being convinced it Is practicable a and nd profitable oil can be distilled from coal and much work Is now being done along this line but niora appeal has been made by tho the p plan ian of extracting oil from shale the of scotland have been worked for three quarters of a century and they are almost unlimited in this country richer in oil than those of scotland kentucky ohio colorado utah nevada wy wyoming and california are particularly rich in it la is just a question of the cost of extracting the oil congress has bae given with which the bureau has installed a plant near rullson colo coliado ado to distill oil from the colorado riar it Is calculated that tho the mined at rullson will produce about a barrel of oil to tho ton tho the use of oil Scotland In they are working that produce about twenty five gallons of oil per ton the seams are from three and u halt half to eight or ten feet thick in colorado ato are seams many times as thick and containing much more oil per ton reduction of f involves an enormous enor moua mining operation and after the oil Is extracted the vast tonnage ot of refuse must be disposed of so it Is expensive compared with producing oil from wells den ben E U lindsen landsey of the bureau ot of minos experiment station at barties barilea ville oua okla la is confident that explore tion better recoveries better utilization and deeper drilling would burnish enough oil to meet au all requirements tor for at least twenty alve to fifty years it ff it could bo be extracted in that time but as a practical matter this will not be r possible los sile within that period there will be times ot of shortage when oil from shalee will bo be needed to supplement the oil from wells ells etc meantime federal and andt state tate govern monts minta and the industry are co ing in an astonishing tango range of hinves and studies these activities cover such a wide field 1104 that oven even an enumeration of them would run into tiresome detail |