The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-02-03
OLD MEXICO'S SPECTACULAR
OIL PRODUCING FIELDS
Greater Attention Is Being Given In
dustry Since World War.

Slnce the WOrlQ war emphasized
the Importance of petroleum in mod
ern warfare and awakened keen re-
alization of the even greater part it
will be called on to play in reconstruc-
tion and in the industrial and CONNER
cial development of the future, inter-
est has turned more and more to Mex
leo, which contains the most spectac-
ular of the present producing oil
fields. This nearby oil region is the
subject of the following bulletin is
sued by the National Geographic So
ciety:
"Mexico came into the world race
for oil production late. Its first pro-
ducing well, yielding modest so bar
rels a day, was brought in not quite
twenty years ago. Now it has group
Of the greatest gushers in the world,
a number of which are capable of pro-
ducing from $4,000 to 100000 barrels
each of liquid gold daily. By 1911
Mexican production reached twelve
and half million barrels annually
and surpassed that of three of the
long-standing leaders among the coun-
tries to which the world looked for its
oil supply-Rumania, Galicia and the
Dutch East Indies.
SIN 1918 this production was dou-
bled, and by 1917 it had more than
doubled again. In 1918 Mexican oil
wells yielded nearly 64,000,O00 barrels,
and in 1919 more than S7,000,000 bar
rels. This latter production was in
excess not only of the current annual
production of Russia, previously sec
ond among oil producing countries but
also exceeded Russia's high water
mark of S5,O00,OO0 barrels in 1901.
Now only the United States, with a
production of nearly 400,O00,000 bar
rels, is ahead of Mexico.
"But Mexico is accepted as having
the greatest demonstrated oil field in
the world and it is estimated that if
all its producing wells had been per-
mitted to flow at their maximum dur
ing 1919 the resulting production
would have been 100000 barrels
more than the actual production of
the entire world in 1918. AS a matter
of fact only about II percent. of the
potential flow of the Mexican wells is
permitted, because storage, refining,
and transportation facilities are made
quate to take care of more These ia
cilities are being steadily increased,
however, and exports alone for 1920
probably averaged ten million barrels
a month, the rate definitely establish
ed for the first six months of the year.
"The practice of Mexican natives
OF collecting fragments of asphalt and
bitumen which floated on the waters
of large lagoon near the coast of the
Gulf of Mexico, south of Tampico, and
selling them in the neighboring city,
led to the realization that there must
be underground petroleum supplies
near. Small producing wells and even
fairly large producers were brought in
from 1901 onward, but it was not until
1913 that the first of the tremendous
gushers that have astonished the world
was brought in, near San Geronimo.
spouting between 10000 and $4,000
barrels of oil a day.
mo such stream of oil had ever
been encountered before and the drill
ers were entirely unprepared to cone
with the situation. The great geyser
OF oil caught fire from the boiler of
the drilling outfit and for two months
constituted the greatest and most
spectacular oil fire that the world has
ever known. The roaring pillar of
lame shot upward during its greatest
fury to height of 800 to 400 feet,
illuminating the countryside at night
for many miles, and was visible to
ships more than 100 miles at sea. It
was finally extinguished by huge
pumps throwing streams of gravel and
mud.
THE gigantic gushers of Mexico are
belived to flow not from oil sands as
in many fields, but from caverns hoI-
lowed from limestone by erosion and
later filled with OIL 1t is supposed that
the underground lakes of oil rest on
water under artesian pressure. What
may eventually be expected is illus
trated by one of the most famous of
oil wells, the Potrero del Llano. This
well flowed mighty stream of oil for
eighty years, producing more than a
million barrels regularly each month. !
year in and year out. Finally the COL |
den stream turned to worthless salt
water over night.
"Rich as the known oil fields of |
Mexico are, it is possible that only a |
beginning has been made in uncover
ing the liquid mineral wealth of the |
Republic. The fields now under explo.
ltation cover only about 800 square
miles. Biologists have found promis- |
ing structure for oil in Mexico over
an area aporapatinr 0o0 mn eo,,o,.. |