The San Francisco call., 1910-06-15
ERA OF GUSHERS
ASSURES SUPPLY
Storage of Oil Will Help Navy
to Decide Upon Use of
Liquid Fuel

mat the oil gusher area in California
mas been fortunate for the future Of the
OH industry when viewed from a pro-
ouction standpoint, in so far that a
huge production viii assure the great
navies Of the world and the merchant
meets sufficient storage of oil so that
they may always be certain of a con-
slant supply, is the opinion of Colonel
Timothy Spellacy of Coalinga, who is
now at the Palace hotel.
Colonel Spelacy, in company with
). d. Thompson, vice president of the
Premier oil company; Harry W.
Thomas, secretary of the Illinois crude
oil company, and James A. Carpenter.
neld manager Of the Premier oil COM
pany, are in the city conferring with
n. F. Wilson, president of the Lincoln
mortgage and loan company. regarding
me Premier, Mascot, Illinois Crude and
otner WeA known properties, in which
they are mutually interested.
NOT OVERPRODUCTION
The gusher era viii be found to have
proved a wonderful thing for Califor-
MAS oil industry" said Colonel SneI-
lacy last night. The huge present
production viii not mean an overpro-
duction- If the great nations of the
world are assured of a constant sunnIv
Of Oh and If oil is held in sufficient
Stors &c they will inevita blv a5oDt oil
ss IueI- In the Caspian and Baltic seas
100000 barrels Of oil are daily taken
:pX the steamers calling at the ports
there. In the Baltic, in the waters of
Asaatic Russia, in the Trans-Caspian
ana largely on the Mediterranean oil is
known as the cheapest and most eco
nomicsl fuel.
The possibilities that the merchant
steamers Of the Pacific ocean. TO saw
nothing Of the war craft, offer as oil
consumers are hard to estimate. but
based on the present consumption of
coal one Of our leading oil statfs-
ticians has figured that were all our
Pacific ocean steamers to use California
Oh they would consume at least 100000
barrels Of oil a day. This would be at
the rate of 100000 barrels of oil
month, or almost three times Califor-
MAS present production.
Regardless of a compilation as to
the enormous amount of oil which
would be consumed were all the mer-
chant vessels on the Pacific ocean to use
oil as fuel the fact remains that with
suhclent oil In storage every steamer
would be able TO use oil as fuel and
In the course of time, by reasons of
economy they would be forced to adopt
oil burning engines.
INVESTIGATED BY NAVY
Those who are urging the use of oil
in the United States navy may rest
assured that the navy authorities have
already thoroughly investigated the
proposition, and il has been presented
10 them forcefully many times. one
OF the greatest difficulties probably
the one great difficulty, encountered by
tne fepresen natives Of the California oil
iEooUcing interests in presenting to
ofHcials Of the United States navy the
advantages both Of economy and CON
Kenience that would accrue from the
use OF crude oil as fuel in the navy is
the fact that no argument could be put
Iqrth' which would assure the officials
that enough oil could be had In storage
%. keep Uncle Sans war vessels going
IT all times Of the year.
--Tae fact is that with a storage of
bo.ooo'O00 barrels, which, of course.
seems an incredible amount at the
present time, California could offer
enough oil to keep all vessels supplied
at home ports with a balance for fleets
Of tank steamers TO carry TO foreign
ports.
AT the present time Argentina wouId
use 1000 barrels of oil a day at prices
over so cents If il could get it. With
greater storage and transportation IA
cihtles IN the way Of pipe lines we will
have more tank steamers. The Great
Northern railway viii use 3 600 ba arrels
OF oil a day. When It is taken into CON
sideration that this railroad and others
are hugely interested IN coal proper
ties, whose development ii would seem
they can not profitably abandon, the
fact that they are contracting for Cali
fornia oil speaks volumes for the
economy Of oil as fuel as contrasted
with coal.
MA re
'-As long as oil is the cheapest and
most economically handled fuel il will
be certain TO command a market as
against coal If we had 10000. 900 bar
Tels or some other huge quantity of
oil IN storage we would have an in
,oucement TO urge that the great liners
or. the Pacific ocean all adopt oil as
1tel and we could assure them of
constant supply. And il is certain that
under such conditions they would do
50. The saving would be so tremendous
that their adoption Of fuel oil would
ne an economic certainty. The New
York Herald recently said that II the
liner Lusitania used oil as fuel in pref
erence TO coal, il would save $50 600 !
on the round trip TO Europe and back"
Harry w. Thomas, secretary Of the /
Illinois crude oil company, who is ac- !
companying Colonel Spellacy, said yes
teroay, during q conference of the /
rpelLacy managers at the Office of the
Lincoln mortgage and loan company:
he bringing in Of the big gushers
has proved to the world that California |
possesses sufficient supply Of oil to |
take care Of the needs of the mer-
chant vessels of the nation Already
the production Of the big gushers has
created greater markets for oil The
contract Of the independents with the
Great Northern railway for 5000 bar
rels of oil q day was the result Of our !
increased production. We had a sup.
ply exceeding local consumption. but |
the oil was the cheapest fuel and it |
was not difficult TO place it. A feature |
of the oil industry in the past is that |
an increasing production of oil has in
variably met an increased market /
This VIII inevitably be found to be /
true in the future. The provision for 1
tremendous storage facilities for oil is |
one Of the great works that will oc- /
cupy the oilmen for the next year
RECORD ON 10 ACRES
Gust TO show how extensive the pro-
duction Of oil may be from a compare
lively small territory it may be said |
that the property Of the Illinois crude |
OH company of 10 acres in the Kern |
river field is producing a hOuf @ 000 n