Morning journal and courier., 1882-06-14
Wednesday Morning, June IA, 1882. s
FACTS AND OPINIONS ABOUT OIL.

FACTS AND OPINIONS ABOUT OIL. l Not long ago Mir Henry E. Wrigley, Q civil
 engineer living in Philadelphia, put forth the | rather startling statement that the ''known
 remaining oil region'' in this country would be exhausted in about four years, and he SUD-
 ported this statement by some very interest
 ing and convincing calculations Professor | R. W. Raymond of Brooklyn has recently
 made an address in which he referred to Mir. Wrigley's calculations and expressed his be- lief in their correctness.
 1 But while the scientific believers in the 1 speedy exhaustion of the ''known remaining
 oil region'' may be right in their belief the
 great dealers in oil do not appear to be much
 impressed by their predictions. On the con-
 trary most of them so far as heard from,
 consider those predictions absurd and un- warrantable. One of them, who ''has been
 in oil" ever since the first excitement over 1t,
 says: "There have been similar predictions
 in years past, and it has oftentimes been giv-
 en out that the supply was about exhausted. l On every such occasion new fields | have been discovered and devel- oped. The assumption that the ex- istence of oil is absolutely confined 1 to the boundaries prescribed by Mir. Wrig- | ley, in my opinion, is equally wild. My firm belief is that oil will eventually be found to
 be as widely distributed as coal, and that it will be discovered and brought to light in I many places where its existence has never as yet been dreamed of. It has already been discovered in West Virginia, New York; Ken lucky, Ohio, Tennessee, California and in
 Canada; also in Wyoming and several west ern Territories. The largest we'll ever struck was in Canada. It exists also in Russia and other foreign countries notably in the Valley of the Euphrates do not apprehend a ne- cessity for return to the days of tallow- dips"
 This gentleman alse points out that while over-production has caused the present low price this price is really to great ex- tent speculative, which is shown by the fact that during May the transactions at the Oil Exchange were over 98, OOO 900 gallons, while there are at present only about 30, GOO, 900 gallons on hand above ground, and that at the close of April only 10000, 900 of certif- cates had been issued. The over production is due to the fact that it pays to produce oil even at the ridiculously low figure of 5 cents per barrel. The actual want of the whole world at the present time is about 5O GOO gal 1 Ions per day, and the actual production about 8o,O0O. If the production could be brought | down to the consumption of course the price | would go up.
 Over production will probably go as long as the produces can make it profitable, | and that, it is said, will be as long as flow | ing wells are found. It is asserted that four | wells in the new district in Warren county, | Pennsylvania, are together producing not less l than four thousand barrels day. When one | of the wells was opened about ten days ago | twelve hundred and fifty barrels flowed forth | in nineteen hours Over production has been going on now for about five years, and | when it will stop nobody knows. Those who | buy oil just before it does stop will make 1 money.