Evening star., 1948-01-16
Stars, Men and Atoms
Nation S Oil Potential Held
Enough for 900 Years
Shale and Coal Declared Guarantee of
Supply Despite Heavy USAGE
By Thomas r. Henry

By Thomas r. Henry
There is enough oil shale and coal In thu
United States alone to provide at least 2,o0o,- =
100000 barrels of crude oil year for thou
sand years.
This is the conclusion of Dr. Kirtley r.
Mather. professor of geology at Harvard, in
face Of the undoubted depletion of the oil
resources Of the world at the rate of about
$500, 100000 barrels year. This is about ner
cent OF the earth's known reserves and probably
] per cent of the actual supplies in the rocks.
At the best, says Prof Mather in a report
just published here, the natural oil Is sufficient
for not much more than rs years at the present
rate Of consumption which Is quite likely to
increase.
ALREADY" he says. can appreciable fraction
Of American requirements for petroleum prod.
ucts ID being met by the synthesis of LIQUID
hydrocarbons from natural gas. At the moment
. pilot plant for the synthesis of petroleum
from oil shale Is being put into operation in
Utah by the Bureau Of Mines. Methods Of
synthesidng petroleum products from coal,
developed by the Germans before and during
the war, are being checked and improved
in the research laboratories Of Government
bureaus and private corporations in this
country.
Experiments Are Costly.
'cBut application of the technical knowledge
IS not by any means easy. Processes now
available are too expensive to permit compete
tion with natural petroleum products except
under raordinary conditions The neces-
sary equipment is extremely complicated, very
costly and requires extensive plants Its in
stallation is not yet practical on sufficiently
large scale to permit such substitution
of mineral fuel resources in the immediate
future"
Great new oil deposits, DR.. Mather points
out, probably can be expected, so far as North
America Is concerned, only under those off,
shore areas which once were part Of the
continent but which now are submerged.
Probably the most important Of these. he
points out is the coastal plain of Louisiana
and Texas which continues far out beneath
the waters of the Gulf of Mexico
'The present position of the shore line" he
says, has no relationship whatever to the
occurrence of oil beneath Its surface. From
the standpoint Of geology there is no reason
to doubt the presence of salt domes beneath
the marginal waters of the Gulf quite similar
to those beneath the adjacent shore.
Offshore Wells Difficult.
Petroleum engineers already have had con-
siderable experience with drilling operations
in shallow water. Hundreds of wells have
been drilled in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela,
near its eastern shore. But offshore drilling
in the Gulf of Mexico is very different
proposition from that in the quiet waters Of
the lake. Drilling platforms must be high
enough above the water to escape damage
from storm waves and out in the open waters
Of the Gulf, where hurricanes occur almost
every year, this means height Of at least
80 feet above high-tide level.
"In spite of all the difficulties two wells have
already been completed off the Louisiana shore
one miles and the other 80 miles from
land. The former, although drilled to depth
Of 12,786 feet, failed to produce oil. At last
reports the second also had failed to locate
commercial amounts of oil.
"Other wells are even now in various stages
of preparation for drilling at distances Of 10
to 40 miles from land. Similarly, among the
Bahama Islands and elsewhere on the eon-
tinental shelf bordering the South Atlantic
States, surveys have been in progress for
nearly two years and drilling operations are
scheduled at an early date"