PETROLEUM P. 480
MINERAL RESOURCES 1886
The recent occupation of Burmah by the British, and with it
the removal of the restrictions that have heretofore been imposed upon
industry and commerce, has directed the attention of consumers of
petroleum to the character and possibilities of the Burmah oil
fields. The two best sources of information relative to these
fields are (1) a British Blue Book "British Burmah Administration
Report, 1883-1884,” and (2) a letter in the London Times from a Rangoon
correspondent. From these two sources, the following statement is
compiled.
There are two distinct oil fields in Burmah -one on the
Arakan coast, in the neighborhood of Akyab, and the other in Upper
Burmah, at a place called Yenanchaung. However, there are many
other places where petroleum oozes out of the soil and where it may
exist in quantity. Wells have been dug at Theyetmayo the old
frontier town. At Mimbu petroleum is noticed in small quantities
in the neighborhood of the mud volcanoes. Also, it has been
stated by those who went on the recent expedition to the Yaw country to
the west of the Chindwin that petroleum was observed.
There is a great difference in the method of working these
two fields. In the Arakan there have been two British companies
at work for some years, sinking deep wells by boring till the strata
yielding the oil are reached. At Yenanchaung, the natives dig
wells into which the oil oozes through the soil. In the one case,
a boring of 7 or 8 inches has been carried down to the very source of
the oil. In the other there is a well of several feet in section
and carried down not nearly so deep.
PETROLEUM P. 481 MINERAL
RESOURCES 1886
Thus the first, as it reaches the source, brings forth the
oil as it exists and as it was formed and scaled up in the rocks ages
ago; while the second only gives an oil that has filtered through the
surface soil and may have lost a large proportion of tire volatile oils
in percolation. There, is also a difference between the oil
obtained from the Arakan field and that from the Yenanchaung. The
former yield is a light limpid oil, while the latter gives the viscid,
almost solid, substance known as 61 Rangoon oil.” In addition, of
the Yenanchaung oil it may be said that it is hardly refined for
illuminating oil, but for lubricating oils and for paraffin.
In Akyab, the wells have been worked and the oil refined for
several years past, but the result has been disheartening. The
companies formed have either been unsuccessful or have merely
meant going without making any profit on their labors.
At the commencement of the operations about ten years ago, as much as
250 gallons a day was obtained from one well. Thus encouraged,
the work was prosecuted on a larger scale. Four years ago there
were 4 wells, ranging from 500 to 1,200 feet in depth, front one of
which, for a time 1,000 gallons a day were pumped. The company
which was then working raised 234,300 gallons in a year, and refined
65,150 gallons, selling the, rest in a crude, state. As the price
of refined oil was very low, there was a loss on the operations, and
the works, as above said, have almost, if not entirely, been
stopped. So long as prices are low and little production costly,
little progress can be expected in the Arakan oil industry.
The wells in the Upper Yenanchaung oil field were royal monopolies
during the reign of King Thebaw and his father. There were 200
royal wells at Yenanchaung, and about as many in private hands.
Many of these are not working. At present about 200 are
working. They produce about 30 tons per day, or about 7,500
gallons. This would give an average of 37 gallons per day per
well. In the 200 referred to are included about 60 situated at
Bema, in the neighborhood of Yenanchaung. Besides those already
named, there are, 2 or 3 wells at Theyetmayo. Opposite Pagan
there is another, and in the Yaw country there are 2 or 3 shallow wells
as noticed above. The large proportion of the oil is sent down in
barrels or in bulk in native boats to Rangoon. There is one
refinery here, which has therefore a monopoly of the whole oil produced
in Burmah. The natives in the neighborhood of the wells use a
little crude oil, but the quantity bears a small proportion to the
total yield.
The Blue Book before referred to states that the “earth oil
industry, as it tried in the Kyaukpyu district, had not made much
progress during the year 1883-284. The Boronga Company has
invested in the business more largely than any one else. It has
steam machinery for sinking wells and pumping oil, and a large refinery
capable of refining and tinning many thousands of gallons per
week. They have a staff of 8 or 10 English and Canadian
artificers besides Indian and Chinese laborers.
PETROLEUM P. 482 MINERAL
RESOURCES 1886
During the past year this company sank 8 new wells, ranging
from 500 to 610 feet in depth. They have now 24 wells, of which
the deepest is over 1,200 feet deep. At present they pump 9 wells
at a time but with additional gear they could pump many more with the
same engine. In May and Jane, 1883, one of the company's new wells was
yielding largely, and there seemed hope of financial success for the
undertaking, but the yield of the well soon fell, and the amount of
crude oil pumped during the whole year by the company from 10 wells did
not exceed 234,300 gallons. Of this, the company refined 65,450
gallons, and sold the rest in the crude state. The gross yield of
the company's sales was about L6,000. Their markets were
Calcutta, Rangoon, Akyab, and Moulmein. The company’s refined oil
sold at 9s per case in Kyaukpyu at the same time that a case of Devoe's
American oil was quoted in Calcutta at 10s. 6d. per case. The
price of crude oil at Kyaukpyu ranged during the year from 18. to 8s.
per “maund” of 11 gallons. The lower prices of 1s. to 4s.
ruled while the wells were being pumped, and the price, was 8s. when
most of the wells were idle.
Another company, named the Arakan Company, started during the year with
machinery. It sunk seven wells, the deepest of which was 400
feet. Five of these wells have been pumped, yielding a total
output of 167,800 gallons, all of which was sold on the spot in the
crude state. This company has a staff of three Canadians besides
Indians. A smaller company, called the “Petrolia, Company,”
obtained a protecting license and sank ten wells, some of them to a
depth of 450 and 500 feet. Unfortunately, all those holes have
turned out dry and have yielded no oil. The example and the
processes of Canadian experts have had an effect on the native oil
winners. These people hold rights in old wells, which have been
worked fitfully for many years past. They (lo not use steam
apparatus, but with windlasses, shears, and locally made boring tools
they have put down holes of 250 and 350 feet deep. The
deepest bole sunk by a native was 350 feet and turned out dry.
One Arkanese worker obtained a total output of 24,090 gallons at an
outlay of L76 for the year; another produced gallons at 20,075 gallons
for a total outlay of L34 for the year, of which L10 were spent
in boring an old well down to 165 feet without striking oil. The
Arkanese workers put down their wells and manage their proceeds much
more economically than the English companies. The total output of
the whole field, including the Boronga Company’s wells, was 404,325
gallons. The unhealthiness of the site of the refinery is a great
drawback to the Boronga Company’s work. Yet, no one in the
Kyaukpyu field has discovered oil-bearing strata of the type of the
good American or of the Caspian fields, and so far, the business of oil
winning on a large scale has not been a success.
The imports of crude, oil from Upper Burmah during the year were
968,210 gallons. Most of this was taken by the Rangoon refinery,
which produced 640,000 gallons of refined oil during the year.
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RESOURCES 1886
The Upper Burmah oil is much thicker and darker
colored than the Arakan oils.
The chief oil sources in Upper Burmah are at Yenanchaung. This
place was visited by the Government Chemical Examiner in i4ay last, who
reported :
“The oil wells of Yenanchaung are situated on the banks of
the creek that- flows into the Irrawaddy at that place. There are
two groups, the smaller about 2 miles east of the town 7 the other
about 3 miles northeast. The country is tableland intersected by
ravines, the beds, of torrents flowing into the creek. The
surface is covered with gravel and blocks of fossil wood. Below
is a great thickness of friable sandstone; below this, again, blue
shale alternating with beds of sand. It is in the sand that the
oil is found. The wells are sunk indifferently on the sides of
the ravines and on the tops of the hills. The strata appear to
dip generally towards the west, with many folds and contortions, and
the ravines run in a westerly direction. Hence, a well at the
head of a ravine, on the top of the hill, may reach the oil-bearing
stratum as soon as one at the bottom. We saw a well being dug at
the top of the hill. They had reached a depth of 135 feet.
They were cutting through a hard blue shale full of cracks filled up
with sand. The sand was wet with oil, but not enough to drain
out. Another well, about 50 yards off in the ravine, was 225 feet
deep. It was forty years old. Oil hall been reached at 160
feet, and it had been gradually deepened to its present depth as the
stratum of shale had been exhausted of oil. We saw some fragments
of rock that had just been brought up. It was this same hard blue
shale with cracks filled up with sand that we had seen at the other
well. Going down the ravine, I found a stratum of this
oil-bearing rock cropping up, but apparently higher than that into
which the wells were sunk. This was the only well we saw at work;
the others were stopped for the day. It give 60 gallons daily,
and might give more were there means of carrying away the oil.
The oil is raised in earthen pots shaped like gourds, and holding about
4 gallons. From these it is decanted into larger pots of the same
shape, holding about 6 gallons. The work of raising the oil was
performed by a laborer and his wife, who were paid 1s per diem, 6d
each. They work in connection with a carter, who is paid 2s. for
himself and pair of bullocks, making one trip a day to the river shore,
where the oil is carried in bulk in boats to the steamers. The
capacity of the boats is said to be about 25 tons of oil. The
method of raising the oil is very crude. Two forked branches set
upright carry a horizontal beam bearing a roller over which passes the
rope. The laborer takes the end of the rope and runs down hill
with it and holds it while his companion runs down with another length,
and so on. While the list length of the rope is drawn out, one of
the men is waiting at the month of the pit to exchange the full pot for
an empty one. It is impossible to say what the real maximum
yield may be. Many of the wells are not worked; some of them are
exhausted.
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RESOURCES 1886
We found that there were 130 cartloads brought from the
great wells, and this represented the accumulation of five days.
Dr. Oldham, thirty years ago, was told that the yield was 150 carts
daily. If the wells are worked to their utmost now, unless Dr.
Oldham was misinformed, the product has greatly fallen off.
“We were told that two wells had been sunk at a point to the
southwest of the smaller wells on the other side of the watershed;
that oil had been obtained, but it was mixed with water, and the wells
had been abandoned. I think it very probable that oil-bearing
strata may be found all over that strange barren tableland of which
Yenanchaung is the center.
There is a smaller district further up the river on
the west bank opposite Pagan, but the oil is light like the Arakan
oil. This is also the case with the oil found at Yaw in the
Chindwin district. It is obtained there from surface springs but
cannot be exported for want of roads. The rock formation seems to
be much more recent than that in which we find the petroleum of
Yenanchaung in the Myanuang district and the coal of Okpo.
“The imports of kerosene oil from America fell from 2,530,534 gallons
in 1880--'83 to 1,205,160 gallons in the year 1883-184. The
reduction was probably due partly to oversupply in the previous year
and partly to the stringency of the new Petroleum Act, rather than to
the output of local oils. The Petroleum Act is now less
stringently enforced, and imports of American petroleum are more active
again.”
END