Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-03-28
RUSSIAN PETROLEUM.
A Single Well In Baku Produces
Nearly as Much as All the Ameri-


IuCJS ABOUT Iue NdSJ OH NCllS VI ANhooi"
and their probable effect on the American
| market:
A wonderful revolution IN the petroleum
trade has been in progress for the past rev
wears, and in its course has attracted
comparatively little public attention. The
enormous supplies obtained at Baku nave
already driven American oil from the hus-
sian empire and is now in course OF super
sedng it along the Mediterranean httoral,
and as far as India With efficient CONNER
cial management there should DO no dlthcul-
ty in the continued extension of this COM
petition, for the supply ofpetroleum in the
Caucasus is practically ineXhaustlble, ana
its cost of production on the spot is said 10
be only one fourteenth that Of the Pennsyl-
vania fields.
The writer gives great many interest
ing facts and figures with regard to TINS
wonderful Caucasus region, which seems
destined to play an important part IN COM
mcrcal and industrial history. An assur-
ance of an extended and cheaper supply OF
this valuable fuel will doubtless lead TO its
greatly increased use in the future, to the
advantage of trade and industry. AS q
steam producer there is obviously an enor-
nous field open for the use of pot'.oleum,
!
its general adoption 10 steamers and loco
motives, saving the heavy cost of transport
and stocking involved in the burning OF
coal. A certain aud cheap supply is, OF
course, necessary TO induce change
of existing plant, and there seems
now no doubt existing on these important
points Whether it be true or not that the
American fields are approaching exhaustion,
/. l.. l,1 MI for
years to come, while the fields Of Galicia and
Burmah promise TO supplement any posi-
BILE deficiencies.
Mr. Marvin writes on this question of
supply: "ln America there are more than
$4,000 drilled petroleum wells. Baku pos
sesses 400. But single one OF these 400
| wells has thrown up as much oil in day as
nearly the whole $1,000 in America put to-
gether. This is very wonderful, but more
striking fact is that the copiousness of the
well should have ruined its owners and
| broken the heart of the engineer who bored
it, after having yielded enough oil IN four
! months TO have realized in America at least
Il ,00J,00O. In Pennsylvania that fountain
| would have made its owners fortune;
there's 5000 worth of oil flowing out Of the
well every day. Here it has made the own
er bankrupt These words were address
ed TO me by an American petroleum en-
gineer as | stood alongside well that had
| burst the previous morning and out OF
which the oil was flying twice the height Of
! the great geyser in Iceland, with roar
that could be heard several miles round
Matters have somewhat improved since
that time. The oil is collected in ponds or
reservoirs at Baku, some approaching the
dimensions of lakes, and pipe lines have
been laid leading TO the reiineries on the
| coast The supply keeps up without dlml-
mutton, for as Mr.. Marvin points out near
! ~ all the wells are what the Americans
would consider extremely copious ones. A
! well yielding only few hundred gallons of
| oil a day l}aku firm would not consider
worth working. This is not remarkable,
seeing that the richest of the Ballu wells
| has yielded 2.OOO,0JO gallons, or ten times the
largest yield in America, in twentyfour
| hours. The supply is more under control, since
| spouting wells are now plugged up TO await
| a proper market. Owing TO the low price Of
crude petroleum, Nobel Brothers shut down
fourteen fountains at Balakhani, proferrng
in the meanwhile TO buy what they required
from neighboring well proprietors. Occa-
slonally fountain is opened to examine its
condition, when il is always found that the
supply is as prodigious as when capped
| over.
In the Balzu district the deepest well yet
| sunk is 500 feet from the surface. In Amer
lea there are a number of wells in the Brad
ford region 1900 or 5000 feet deep, and one
in West Virginia about 5000 feet down. An
extension of the supply by deeper sinking is
naturally expected at BalSu, while there are
: many other districts of the Caucasus as yet
hardly touched. A French company has
successfully bored for oil sixty miles inland
of Novorosissisk, near the sea of Azof. The
whole territory of the Tcrek CossaclSs has
primitive wells, from which local proprie
tors obtain in the aggregate a large supply
of oil, while across the Caspian sea an eX
tensive oil region extends along the line Of
the Transcaspian railway.
Some interesting facts are given by Mr..
Marvin, with reference TO the production and
refining of the oil. a "a result of the COpi-
BUSINESS of the fountains the crude oil has at
times been selling at the rate Of fifty gallons
for a penny. American competition on such
q basis is impossible. This rate has been,
Of course, exceptional, but low prices are
apparently assured for many years to come.
The development OF the industry has been
accompanied by many crises and ignorant
observers have mistaken these growing
palms, for symptoms of collapse. But al
though this collapse has been "going TO oc-
cur several times il has never vet come off,
while at the end Of every year the industry
has been found 10 have forged ahead consid-
erably. The growth of large firms usually
means the ruin Of many little ones, and
Balxu has been no exception to the general
rule. In 1SSfthere were about 200 refineries
at Baku now there are III. comprising 81
large ones and 50 small. The supply Of
crude petroleum meantime has increased
i from S00.tons TO j2e000O0 tons per annum
while the output of refined oil has grown
from 60,0O0,OO0 TO l50,0OO,0O0 of gallons in
> |
known firm of Nobel Brothers, after them
coming Nlessrs. Rothchilds, who have large
interests at Balu and Batoum the shipping
port of the new railway line Messrs Roths-
chlds appear TO have excited "A considerable
4 amount Of local hostility TO their project at
Batoum. They have erected fifteen reser-
voirs at that point and control the trade by
means of their pipe lines. II is said that TAX
ing hint from the policy of the Standard
Oil company of the United States they are
bent on absorbing all smaller producers and
refiners. The enterprise of Nobel Brothers
has hitherto been directed chiefly to the
establishment of depots for storing and sell
ing petroleum at all the chief towns of the
Russian empire, and now they possess a
! fleet of cstern steamers for the transport of
( oil srom BalIu, via the Caspian and Volga
river to interior points. Mr.. Marvin points
out that from the present time the TRACE is
taking a new departure. Up To the summer
; of 1883, Caspian petroleum only found its
way by the above route TO Europe, travers-
ing more than 1000 miles in steamers and
tank cars before reaching the holds of
foreign vessels The construction of the
! Batoum line reduced this distance TO SO
{ miles az a stroke and laid the industry open
20 the civilized world.
With a steady market for the refuse of
a.. ,,,.;.a On, oil fn.. -,