160 NOETUNG: PETROLEUM IN BURMA. 



Part III. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE OILFIELDS 

 OF BURMA. 



Note. 



Unless otherwise stated all the quantities are expressed 



in Burmese viss. 



I viss = 3'65lbs. avoirdupois. 



loo viss = 365lbs. oil of the specific gravity. 872=1 barrel 



of 42 Imp. gall. 



To change viss into barrels strike off the last two figures. 



Chapter 1.— THE YENANGYOUNG OILFIELD. 

 Section i.— The community of the Twinzayos and their 



HISTORY. 

 It is one of the peculiar features of the petroleum industry of 

 Burma, that the right of exploitation of the famous Yenangyoung 

 oilfield has from earliest times been in the hands of a corporation. 

 It is difficult to say how the corporation acquired ihis right, whether 

 by virtue of a special grant by one of the former Burmese kings, or 

 because its members were the first settlers, in this part of the country, 

 who won the oil. However this may be, it is certain that the Twin- 

 zayo community existed as far back as 1797. If we look up Captain 

 Cox's description (see page 1 1) we find the following note referring to 

 the people who extracted the oil :— 



" The property of these wells is in the owners of the soil, natives of the country, 

 and descends to the heirs generally as a kind of hereditament with which it is said 

 the Government never interferes, and which no distress will induce them to 

 alienate. One family perhaps will possess four or five wells. I heard of none 

 who had more, the generality have less; they are sunk by, and wrought for, the 

 proprietors." 



( 206 ) 



