II'8 NOETLING: PETROLEUM IN BURMA. 



It may, however, be counteracted in two ways, one of which has 

 already been referred to : these are- 

 te) by increasing the number of productive wells, 

 (b) by adopting the system of deep borings. 



As regards the first remedy it has already been largely drawn 

 upon ; 107 new wells are oil producing, 151 wells under construction 

 are expected to produce oil in a short time, and 281 places have been 

 selected on which to construct new wells. So far so good, but the 

 native reserves as well as the Yenangyoung oilfield cover only 

 limited areas; the native reserves have been demarcated in such a 

 way as to allow room for a total of 2,250 pit wells (see page 233). 

 Out of these 2,250 well sites, 1,190 are already occupied, and there 

 remains therefore only space for 1,060 new wells, — theoretically at 

 least. Whether it will be possible to locate these 1,060 wells among 

 the already crowded wells remains to be seen ; it is my opinion that 

 this is very doubtful, and that the nature of the land hardly allows for 

 half this number. However that may be, it is certain that the decline 

 of production cannot be counteracted by an unlimited increase of the 

 productive wells. It may be that this remedy will answer, say, for the 

 next five years, but the day must surely come when it will fail, and when 

 the wells will all have reached their greatest limit of depth, and that 

 day will mean the end of the native oil industry, at least as regards 

 the system of exploitation by pit wells. As far as my experience 

 goes this day cannot be very far off, and if the facts are correct it 

 will occur within the next ten years, perhaps even within a shorter 

 period. As already stated this by no means proves that the native 

 reserves are entirely exhausted, it proves only that the upper 

 parts, accessible to pit wells, are exhausted, and that in order to 

 exploit the deeper parts, another system of exploitation will have 

 to be adopted. That there is only one way, that of deep drilling, 

 need hardly be explained, but it may be doubted whether the natives 

 are capable of availing themselves of this method. As far as my 

 experience goes I seriously doubt it ; none of the present well owners 



( 164 ) 



