Items of Interest August 19, 1916 Issue

Items of Interest

The Argentine minister of agriculture is about to present for congressional approval a project providing for the issuing of 16,000,000 pesos in bonds to be used in the exploitation of the Comodoro Rivadavia oil fields. The bonds are to be negotiated locally, and the money is to be utilized in necessary extensions and machinery and in purchase of two more oil-tank steamers for conveying petroleum to the city of Buenos Ayres, where the chief consuming market is found. The oil fields as now exploited by the Argentine Government are located in the territory of Chubut, where a reserve of 5000 hectares has been set aside for this purpose.

Under a law enacted in 1910, a general board for the supervision and administration of the oil fields was created. Since the board took charge of the work, twenty-five wells have been bored, in all of which petroleum and petrolific gases were found. Comparing the production per well per day with the Russian fields of Grosny, it is found that the Argentine wells produce 20 tons per day for the old wells, and 13 tons per day for the new wells, whereas the Grosny wells produced only 12.50 tons for the old wells, and 6.31 for wells in course of construction. The average yield of the wells in California, where the yield is richest, according to a recent report from the United States, does not exceed three tons per well per day.

When District Judge Bledshoe recently handed down a decision which gave the United States Government title to 160 acres in the Maricopa fields of Kern County, valued at $10,000,000, the Government gained its greatest victory in the California oil land cases. This suit was brought under the Taft withdrawal order of 1909. The Government contended that the defendants did not discover oil or petroleum gas and did no development work prior to the date of the President's withdrawal order. One million dollars is said to have been spent by the defendant companies in developing the properties. The case will be appealed. There are many similar cases yet to be tried.

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