Evening star., 1932-01-25
SEASONAL OUTPUT
FOR OIL IS SEEN
California Official Believes
Winter Production Plan
May Be Adopted.
BY CARL G.. BENJAMIN.

SAN FRANCISCO, January 25.-Will
oil production become, like many
branches of agriculture, a seasonal in
dustry?
r. D. Bush, California oil and gas
supervisor, sees the necessity of trend
in that direction in this State. But
the heavy production season. If the
change he foresees as a necessity comes
about, will be Winter, not Summer, as
in agriculture.
The factors which are combining to
bring about seasonal production are the
California law against unreasonable
waste Of natural gas-Which, incident
ally, is being enforced-and the heavier
demand for natural gas for heating
purposes in Winter, plus Of course, ths
necessity Of the industry to hold down
oil production to level with demand.
State Law Upheld.
Tie State law prohibiting unreason-
able waste Of natural gas, passed by the
Legislature two years ago, has been
tested in both State and Federal courts
and been upheld. Oil and gas in Cali
fornia are produced from the same
wells gas playing an important part in
forcing the oil to TIE surface. Gen
orally speaking, one cannot be produced
without the other. Consequently it was
thought that the gas conservation law
would act to restrict overproduction
Of oil.
1t has aided the industry in curtail-
f,,,x L,,,t ,HoY- fTort
has been to almost eliminate natural
gas wastage. In January, 1880, 1850,
900 900 cubic feet Of natural gas was
being produced daily, of which about
750,000000 feet was being blown into
the atmosphere as an incidental waste
of oil production. Last month gas pro-
duction had been reduced to 952,000,000
cubic feet daily, of which $4,000, 900
cubic feet was being wasted
This was accomplished through i'm
proved production methods, whereby
less gas was produced per each barrel
Of oil by closing some wells which were
heavy gas producers and by reducing
oil production from about 700 900 to
about 100000 barrels daily, the latter
figure being about normal at present
and about the necessary amount to
meet normal demand Thirty eight
million feet daily is not considered by
the Office of the oil and gas supervisor
a very unreasonable WaStage, consid-
ering the size Of the States oil indus
+ try, but it happens that much of that
| amount is blown into the air in a few
fields, thus constituting what is consid-
cred unreasonable SWaste. So action is
under way to reduce that amount.
Opening of New Field.
1t happened that the States deter
mination to stop waste of gas about
| conceded with the opening up of the
! Kettleman Hills oilfelds. one of the
! biggest StOrehouses of oil and natural
! gas in the world. These two factors
! forced rapid extension of the natural
! gas industry. Kettleman Hills now sup
| plies gas to the entire San Francisco
! Bay area and to cities and towns be-
! tween here and the field. An eXpen-
| sive pipe line even takes natural gas
| from Kettleman to Southern California,
which heretofore has had an oversup-
! ply from its own fields.
The demand for the new fuel has
! grown rapidly, and it is anticipated it
will be permanent. But a good part of
! the demand is for gas for heating pur-
| poses, and this is a Winter demand
Except for last Summer, when. owing
to lack of water, there was an abnor-
NAL demand for gas to generate cleo
trio power experience this far indicates
the Winter demand for gas will be
! about double the Summer demand
/ Since oil can be more easily stored
than gas, Mr.. Bush sees the necessity
coming very soon of the oil industry
getting on a seasonal production basis
producing enough oil and gas in Winter
| to supply the Winter demand for gas
! and only enough oil and gas in Sum-
mer to supply the leSsened demand for
gas. Excess oil produced in Winter
would be stored to supplement lower
Summer oil production
Sees Program as Necessity.
MFR. Bush admits that this seems tc
be letting the tail wag the dog, but he
sees some such program as a necessity
If the State Is going to insist that there
be no unreasonable waste of natura
gas, and the oil industry is going tc
keep its house in order by limiting tota
annual production of oil to normal de-
mand.
CCopyrght 1922