The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-08-12

Copyright 1917. by Frank G. CARPENTER
Washington, D. G.
E7N1HE demands of the war have
brought Oklahoma into the lime
light. 1 might better say into the
gaslight, for the state is a mighty
gasoline torch, the flame of which i as
important to US as the pillar of fire was 10
the Israelites. 1t will increase in i'm
portance as the war goes on. Upon Il VII
largely depend the movement of the thou
sands of airplanes which we shall be
sending to Europe, of the motor trucks
in the field, of many of our vessels at
sea, and even of the military tanks, the
warlike Ieviathans of the land which will
soon be travelling over the trenches, the
advance guards of our army when charg-
ing the Germans.
Today Oklahoma leads tine United States
in its output of petroleum and natural
gas. Last year the state produced more
than four times as much oil as Texas
and 100000 barrels more tnan Califcr-
MIA It produced more than one-third of
all our petroleum, and today more than
thousand new wells are drilling and
the present production is more than
quarter OF a million barrels of crude oil
per day, with a monetary value of $780,
900 A vast part of this product goes
through pipe lines. which have described
In former letter, to Port Arthur, Beau
mont and Baton Rouge but millions
of barrels are refined on the ground The
state has Al oil re1neries, and 10 of these
are now using 1000 barrels OF crude oil
every "a hours. They are ali running
sat their full capacity and they will be
more than busy until the close of the
war. .g
An enormous increase is going on in the
production of natural gas and in the
squeezing of gasoline out OF the gas for
industrial consumption. In the past year
the output of such gasoline for this state
has almost doubled During 1915 it was
consid erably more than 1.O00.0oo gallons
per week, and it is possible that 1t may
tamount to 100,000,00o gallons this year.
During the past 70 months the output OF
natural gas has been more than 5000, 0o0,-
goo cubic feet daily. only about one-tenth
kof which has been used. There Is one
field in the northern part Of Oklahoma
which now yields about oo,0o0,O00 cubic
feet of gas every day. This is in Kay
tcounty. 1t Is said to be the greatest
natural gas producing area OF the world.
There are also large quantities of. gas in
FKansa4s, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas,
and these fields may be developed to in
lcrease the gasoline supply. Just now the
various states are adopting conservation
ksnethods In order to prevent the surplus
kof gas going to waste 1t Is estimated
THAT Oklahoma Is now saving something
Alike 2,000 100000 cubic feet every day.
Much of the gas lies in the rocks above
the beds of petroleum.; and in the past
Itt was allowed TO flow out and go to waste
in order to get the valuable oil con-
tents below. Today they have discov-
sered methods by which they pump
I'm mud-laden fluid which coats the OIL
well and seals in the gas SO that the
oil can be taken out and the gas pre-
served until needed. In such cases the
gas sand lies above the oil sand, with
rock breaks between.
The center of the oil industry OF Okla
homa Is the city of Tulsa In the north