124 NOETLING: PETROLEUM IN BURMA. 



this decline will take place within a limit of ten years or even 

 earlier. 



In conclusion I may point out that the views which I expressed in 

 1888 have been borne out by the facts. In my first paper I wrote as 

 follows : " On the whole there is every reason to believe that the oil 

 industry will develop in the future and will rank amongst the import- 

 ant mineral industries of Burma. Wild ideas about beating or com- 

 peting with American or Russian oil cannot be too strongly deprecat- 

 ed as being only too likely to prove utterly illusory." In confirmation 

 of the above I simply refer the reader to the chapter on production. 



Chapter V.— THE OCCURRENCE OF PETROLEUM NEAR 



YENANGYAT. 



Section i.— Geographical position; area occupied by the 

 oil fields; physical geography. 



The small village of Yenangyat, or Yenanchit as it is sometimes 

 spelt, is situated in Lat. 21° 6' and Long. 94° 51' E., on the right 

 bank of the Irawadi, nearly opposite the ruins of old Pagan. It is 

 for this reason that this occurrence has sometimes been called the 

 Pagan oil field, or even the name of Paganyat has been substituted. 



It seems that the occurrence of oil at this locality has been known 

 for a long time, because Crawford 1 mentions that oil oozes out from 

 the rock at this locality. The members of the mission to Ava 2 

 apparently visited Yenangyat, and Dr. Oldham was then of opinion 

 that the exploitation of this place might perhaps be projected. It 

 seems that the natives started the construction of pit wells a few 

 years later, but so far the production has been very small. 



Wells are dug in three narrow ravines, running, roughly speak- 

 ing, parallel to each other, north of the village of Yenangyat. 

 The names of these ravines from south to north are — 



1. Yenaung-chaung. 



2. Ok-Khyaung-chaung. 



3. Ywaya-chaung. 



1 Crawford, mission to Ava, Vol. II, page 18. 



2 Yule, mission to Ava, Appendix A, page 320. 



( *7° ) 



