YENANGYOUNG. 119 



commands the capital necessary to cover the first outlay, nor is it 

 probable that their suspicious character will allow them to combine 

 and raise the necessary capital among themselves. I believe that 

 they will eventually sell the wells which are useless to them for a 

 trifle to those who by their superior methods may give a new life 

 to the oilfield, provided, of course, the strata have not been ex- 

 hausted, a probability which we will have to examine now. 



In a previous paper 1 I wrote the following with regard to the pit 

 wells : "As regards the average daily production per well we notice 

 a considerable decrease in the total average since 1888 from 56*1 

 viss to 47 '65 viss. Of the different classes the highest decline will 

 be noticed in the Illrd class, if we except the Vth class as containing 

 too small a number of wells to give a reliable result. We there- 

 fore see that in that class of wells, which contributes the largest 

 share to the production, a very considerable decrease of the average 

 production, amounting to 14*6 per cent, of the production in 1888 took 

 place. In other words that bed of the oil bearing strata which hitherto 

 supplied six-tenths of the total production shows unmistakable signs 

 of exhaustion." I emphasized this view repeatedly in the paper above 

 quoted, and I am now in the position to check it. I select again the 

 328 wells, which have been in continuous working order since the 

 beginning of 1891, omitting all those which have been added in the 

 meantime. The aggregate daily production of these wells amounted 

 to- 

 rn 1891 16.935 viss. 



,. 1893 22,192 „ 



„ 1895 . . . . . . . 19,200 „ 



that is to say, the average daily production of a single well was — 



in 1891 ••••••••• 51*6 viss. 



11 1893 677 „ 



i> 1895 58-5 „ 



1 Report on the Petroleum Industry in Upper Burma. Rangoon, 1891, page 23> 



( 165 ) 



