MINERAL nil. 



PETROLEUM 



Oi-rurri-ri<-- 





\V. r! !\ -;;,; ly. 



pt. 1,69-77; 1900, xxxiii., pt. 1,15; 1907, xxxvi., pt. 2, 77. The mitti-M-til, 

 kdln *<tl<i)tt, ininak tanah, manyenney, manti-tayilam, ye-nd, etc. Petroleum, 

 otherwise known as mineral or rock oil or naphtha, is wwntiiilly a roixtore 

 of hydrocarbons of the paraffin and olefine series. It occurs stored in loose- 

 ;n>il conglomerates and sandstones, in which its -lint rihut ion is similar 

 to that of water in porous strata, being retained by impervious beds of cly. 

 It may exude thioinrh any accidental fissure at the surface of the earth 

 and thus form nat ural oil-springs, but is chiefly obtained by boring through 

 the impervious covering strata into the oil-sands below, from whir 1 

 oil may be raised by pumping ; or it sometimes " gushes " out by pressure 

 of the associated gaseous hydrocarbons. As to its origin, various theories 

 have been advanced, such as that it is derived from the action of water on 

 u'ly heated iron carbide contained in the interior of the earth : and 

 that it has been formed by the decomposition of the remains of animal 

 matter at a high temperature or in contact with saline deposits, and the 

 subsequent resolution of the more permanent fatty constituents into 

 hydrocarbons and free carbon dioxide. Ball remarked on this subject, 

 " There can be little doubt that the formation of petroleum is intimately, 

 though obscurely, connected with the presence of salt, otherwise it would 

 be difficult to account for the simultaneous occurrence of petroleum and 

 brine-springs, which have been observed in India, as well as in Pennsyl- 

 vania and Virginia." 



Although much progress has been made in developing the petroleum 

 resources of India, at the present day, according to Holland, these afford 

 little more than 1 J per cent, of the world's supply. The chief sources are 

 the United States and Russia, which together produce about 90 per cent. 

 [Cf. Redwood, A Treatise on Petroleum, 1906, for an account of the chief 

 occurrences and a full bibliography.] The following figures show the 

 huge increase in the Indian production within recent years : 1890, Indian 

 4,132,287 gallons; 1895, 13,003,748 gallons; 1900, 37,729,211 gallons; * 

 1904, 118,491,382 gallons ; 1906, 140,553,122 gallons. The traffic of 1906 

 on 1905 represents an expansion of 22*6 per cent. mainly in the new 

 Singu field, of which it is believed a large portion is still held in reserve. 



OCCURRENCE. According to Holland, petroleum in India is confined 

 to the two systems of folded rocks at either extremity of the Himalaya Indian ANM. 

 (1) the Iranian on the west, including the Pan jab and Baluchistan, and 

 continued beyond British limits to Persia, and (2) the Arakan system on 

 the east, including Assam and Burma, and continued to the oil-fields of 

 Sumatra, Java and Borneo. In both areas the oil is associated with 

 tertiary strata. 



Panjah and United Provinces. The districts from which oil has 

 been reported are Shahpur, Jhelum, Bannu, Kohat, Rawalpindi, Hazara 

 and Kumaon. The output, however, is small, ranging between 1,000 to 

 2,000 gallons a year. In 1903 it amounted to 1,793 gallons, and in 1906 

 stood at 871 gallons. 



Baluchistan. The early efforts made to develop the oil resources in Northern 

 different parts of Baluchistan have been described in the Dictionary. The India, 

 most prominent of these are near Khotan in the Marri hills and Moghal 

 Kot in the Shirani country, where springs examined in 1891 were found 

 to yield oil of a high quality. Holland says that the oil-spring in the 

 neighbourhood of Moghal Kot affords a good illustration of the way in Mogtui Kot 

 which a country, well endowed with the conditions necessary for the 



873 



