The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-08-31
Kansas Fields Cannot Supply
the Present Demand.
Makes a Drawback to Changing
Coal Burning Boilers.
TO DO MORE DRILLING.
In the Fields of This Nature
More Wells Needed.
Several Plans Are Given to
Overcome the Difficulty.
TO DO MORE DRILLING.

Sedan, Kan, Aug. 31.-Strange as it
may seem, there is now demand in
sight for a larger quantity of fuel oil
than the Kansas oil fields are now able
to supply. This. of course, means
heavy oil. It does not include the bet
ter grades, of which there are thou
sands of barrels tanked all over the
neId awaiting for market. With an
available supply of only 5000 barrels
q day, the Standard is anxiously Won
dering where it can get enough more
to supply the demand and fill the con-
tracts which it is now solicited to make
In Kansas City alone.
From doubt and misgivings as to the
efficacy Of installing oil burners in
their plants, manufacturers in Kansas
City and other cities are now signing
the two year contracts for fuel oil that
are offered them. The Standard en-
tered the Kansas City fuel market last
fall with the intention of selling 1000
barrels at sixty cents a barrel. This
was the amount that came from their
two retineries at Neodesha and Sugar
Creek. By March they had sold less
than 1000. The manufacturers
thought natural gas was going to be
sold there at about four cents a thou
sand feet when the gas line from the
Kansas fields was completed. This,
fifty cents a ton. They could see no
economy in oil at sixty cents when it
took three barrels of it to make the
equivalent of a ton of coal.
Then the immensely cold weather
came and some of the consumers had
difficulty in using the crude oil be-
cause the water which it contained
froze the pipes They of course made
claim for damages. The Standard
then gave up crude oil as a fuel pro-
position and quit buying heavy oil.
But by May things looked more hope
full and the fuel agents returned to
Kansas City with instructions to get
fifty cents for the fuel oil. The con-
sumers were in a different mood by
this time. Cheap gas had not ma
teIialized at all and coal was selling at
$1.25 ton. Oil contracts came easily
and now the Standard alone has con-
tracts calling for $500 barrels of fuel
oil. By January l. 1906, there will be
market for at least 1000 barrels
daily of the fuel oil, based upon what
has been contracted for and the
amount yet to be supplied.
Not Enough Oil.
There is not that much fuel oil in
sight. In the entire Kansas field there
is not more than 1000 barrels of
heavy oil that can be had for rs cents
Most of this comes from Humboldt
Chanute and Wayside. The other A.
600 can come only from the two re-
hneries of the Standard. They are now
using 1000 barrels daily of good oil
of which they turn only 1000 into the
fuel oil tanks. Where can the re-
mainder of the heavy oil needed for
fuel come from? Only from two
sources. One is for the producers in
the heavy fields to start the drill again
and increase the supply. The other is
for the Standard to convert the two
western refineries into kind of sepa-
rating or Swimming stations, take
the fuel properties from the oil and
send the better qualities on to Whiting
for final refining. In this way they
could handle much more oil than they
are now taking and at the same time
supply a profitable fuel market. But
in any event, there can be no doubt
as to there being a steady market for
all the fuel oil that can be produced
from now on, just as soon as the big
plants in Kansas City and other places
can convert their boiler rooms into oil
burning establishments. The Stand
ard is going to make fuel contracts as
long as it can see a probability of get
ting the oil to fill them with.
Price May Go Up.
The price of % cents now paid for
heavy oil probably will not be raised.
This price in the field has added to it
the gathering charge of cents and the
pipe line charge of 10 cents making
the oil worth approximately 40 cents
IN Kansas City The other 10 cents
WHICH tAlC AuGl OIL companies get rep
resent the allowance for handling the
business, the amount consumed by
leakage and other losses. The Is cents
gathering and carriage charges are
conceded to be fair, based upon the
charges of the eastern fields. OF course
company like the Standard can get
more profit out of them than can a
smaller company because they have
the advantage of facilities at every
point 1t is probable, however, that
they clear greater profit on the oil
sold out of their refineries than out
of the oil sent north from the fields
direct to the consumer. They paw so
cents for the better oil and then sell
about So to so per cent of it for fuel
OIL Tor the same price, so cents.
The Santa Fe railroad would have
converted its Southern Kansas divi-
sion into an oil burning one except
for the fact that it could not see
enough fuel oil in sight. It was un-
able to get long time contracts from
the producers.