184 NOETLING : PETROLEUM IN BURMA. 



cedented number of 213, that is to say, an increase of over 100 per 

 cent., as compared with 1888. The reason of this enormous increase 

 is easily explained ; after 1893 the new part of the Twingon reserves, 

 namely, its south-western corner which hitherto contained only a 

 few wells, was rapidly exploited, because some rich wells were found 

 in this part, which drew their oil from the 1st oil sand. Nearly all 

 the new wells, to the number of 107, which have been constructed 

 between the end of 1893 and January 1895, are situated in this 

 part, and as the 1st and 2nd oil sand have not shown signs of exhaus- 

 tion, they still belong to the shallow wells. If we deduct the number 

 of these newly constructed wells, from the total, we obtain 106, that 

 is to say, a figure which very nearly corresponds with the number of 

 the shallow wells in 1893, vis., 126. We may therefore suppose that 

 the number of shallow wells in the older part of the oilfield has re- 

 mained almost the same, showing a small decrease which will pre- 

 sently be explained. In other words we may deduce from the above 

 figures the fact, that no fresh wells have been constructed in the 

 older parts of the oilfields, which obtained their supply of oil from 

 the first or second oil sand. 



The next very striking feature is the enormous increase of 

 the deeper wells since 1888, in that year 38 were recorded alto- 

 gether, in January 1895 there were 114, or an increase of 200 per 

 cent. 



This also can be easily explained, a pit well is generally 

 deepened when it begins to fall off in production ; there was no 

 particular need of increasing the depth previous to 1891 when the 

 same quantity could be attained by increasing the number of wells. 

 When no fresh wells were allowed to be constructed, the falling off 

 of the production of the individual wells immediately necessitated 

 steps to be taken to secure their former production. The steps 

 naturally resulted in an increased depth, and we see towards the 

 beginning of 1893 the number of the deeper wells almost trebled 

 since that year, when the construction of fresh wells not only kept 

 ( 330 ) 



