240 



DISCOVERY 



need of some national scheme of conservation whereby 

 the internal resources of the country may be utilised 

 to the greatest possible efficiency. 



The appreciation of these eventualities has led to a 

 good deal of agitation for the introduction of a scheme 

 of this nature, and the Press has, with its customary 

 zeal, seized upon the opportunity to spread the news of 

 famine in furtherance of its own particular propaganda. 

 This, together with the unsettled state of international 

 commerce, has been sufficient to create the feeling of 

 tension in the oil world to which we have alluded. 



Wliatever the issue, it is obvious that to any policy 

 which America may feel it necessary to adopt 

 ultimately, having for its aim the preservation of her 

 natural oil resources, no sane person can take exception. 

 We hav'e to realise that, like ourselves, America has 

 received an enormous impetus to her motor and 

 aeroplane industry as a direct consequence of the War, 

 and the demsmd for oil fuel was never so great as at 

 present. To meet tliis demand she has, perforce, to 

 call on her own resources to a greater extent than 

 before ; and consequently, if the limit of wise output 

 be reached, her export trade is the first to suffer, with 

 corresponding effect on those countries mostly de- 

 pendent on her for their oil-supplies. This possibility 

 constitutes the true danger of the position, and in 

 foreseeing it, it is only reasonable that England should 

 be prepared to meet such a contingency with a policy 

 calculated to relieve any strain to which the British 

 oil industry might suddenly be subjected. 



It is common knowledge that we are largely de- 

 pendent on United States oil for our requirements ; 

 and in view of the fact that that country is responsible 

 for nearly 70 per cent, of the world's supply of crude 

 oU, and that we at present only control about 4 per cent., 

 the possibility of the cutting down of American 

 supplies is one to be guarded against. Fortunately, 

 on this occasion at least, we are not content to await 

 eventualities; and although a definite Imperial oil 

 policy has so far not been made manifest, a movement 

 in one direction has resulted ; namely, the immediate 

 development of our colonial oil resources. To these 

 must be added our interests in Persia and our ultimate 

 policy in Mesopotamia, concerning which our own 

 Government has been consistently vague. In a 

 contemplation of these possibilities, then, our petroleum 

 experts have been and are being employed, and already 

 some highly interesting data have been forthcoming. 

 For our present purpose, it will help in the understand- 

 ing of the position if we review the progress made in 

 the past and the developments possible in the future, 

 in the various producti%'e areas within the Imperial 

 Dominions. And for reasons quite apart from natural 

 precedent, it is convenient to deal with the British 

 Isles first. 



In selecting our own country as an " oil-producing 

 area," we at once take rather an anomalous step, since 

 although, as mother-country, England must form the 

 ultimate political and economic keystone binding our 

 colonies into one united whole, as a crude oil-producing 

 centre she is sadly insignificant, a statement which will 

 doubtless meet with severe criticism from many 

 quarters. It must be evident, however, even to the 

 non-technical public, that the results of the recent 

 boring operations in Derbyshire and elsewhere have 

 not so far justified the flowery statements of confidence 

 which characterised the scheme in the first stages of 

 its initiation last year. " Hardstoft " is scarcely the 

 great success which it was destined to be, a few tons 

 of crude oil per day (according to the latest reports) 

 being the usual rather meagre yield. Doubtless, with 

 more powerful plant and greater pumping this yield 

 could be raised somewhat, but even then the result 

 could not possibly justify the outlay of capital neces- 

 sary. 



Little good could be served by reiterating the text 

 of the several warnings uttered by exjjert geologists, 

 both before and after the Derbyshire enterprise was 

 commenced last year. In a very able article dealing 

 with the geological reasons which render it unlikely 

 that England will ever furnish a commercial supply of 

 oil, Mr. V. C. Illing discussed this aspect of the question 

 in the Geological Magazine of July 19 19, to which the 

 reader is accordingly referred. Writing just a year 

 later, we have to admit that his admonitory predictions 

 have not only been fully justified, but that the search 

 for subterranean oil-pools not only in the Midlands, 

 but in the whole of the British Isles, is a policy only 

 dictated by those for whom scientific principles have 

 little or no meaning. 



" Hardstoft " and kindred propositions were de- 

 fended bj' their supporters principally on the grounds 

 that the requisite geological structures for the pre- 

 servation of oil-pools were present in the areas, and 

 the dangerous word " anticline " was flung hither and 

 thither as an offset to the adverse criticism which the 

 scheme met with from high scientific quarters. To 

 the general public, and unfortunately to many so-called 

 oil experts, the terms " oil " and " anticline " are 

 almost synonymous, certainly inseparable. It does 

 not follow, because subterranean anticlines can 

 be proved in Carboniferous strata, that there, neces- 

 sarily, oil will be located. It takes a man with an 

 " eye for country," as the saying goes, to understand 

 three-dimensional stratigraphy ; and, unfortunately, 

 such men are the exception rather than the rule in the 

 technical world. However, it is easy to be wise after 

 the event, and one can only hope that this unnecessary 

 waste of money, in conducting what is at most only 

 an interesting exporiniont, will be sp«'edily terminated ; 



