Recent Exploration for Petroleum in the United Kingdom
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RECENT EXPLORATION FOR PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 1053 Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/trans/article-pdf/70/01/1053/2178052/spe-924053-g.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 Recent Exploration for Petroleum in the United Kingdom By E. L. ICKES, ZELZAH, CALIF. (Tulsa Meeting, October, 1923) DURING the summer and winter of 1918 eleven standard rigs were erected in the United Kingdom to test the petroleum prospects or. ten structures, eight of which were in England and two in Scotland. By the fall of 1921 ten of the wells were completed; the remaining one, the D'Arcy in Scotland, was stopped some months later. The tests were deep ones, five of the wells being 4000 ft. or more, the rest varying in depth between 1810 and 3918 ft. The total footage drilled was 40,047ft. The holes were put down with standard or cable tools purchased in the United States (except the boilers). The larger sizes of casing, 10-in. and above, were also from America, while the smaller sizes were secured in Scotland. The Hardstoft well in England found a small production of high grade oil and the D'Arcy well also encountered what is reported as a favorable showing at a depth of 1810 ft. The Werrington and West Calder wells had to be abandoned on account of drilling difficulties. The Apedale well encountered great thicknesses of ash in the Carboni ferous and had to be abandoned on account of depth. The results might be summarized by saying that of the ten structures drilled upon, two yielded encouraging showings; three cannot be considered as having been adequately tested; and five produced dry holes, although in some of these small oil showings and gas were met. The total cost of the work amounted to about half a million pounds sterling, which sum includes the cost of all equipment, subsequently sold by the government. The work, under the superintendence of V. L. Conaghan, took place for the most part in the period immediately following the war-a period of high prices, labor and transportation difficulties, and unsettled conditions generally; factors tending to retard the work and affect the costs. The writer, as a member of the staff of S. Pearson & Son, Ltd., had charge of the administration of the work during its later stages and 1054 RECENT EXPLORATION J<'OR PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM therefore had recourse to the various details of operation. In this account he regrets being unable to enter as fully into a geological discus sion as might be desirable, due to inability to consult the required references and notes. During continuance of the drilling, progress reports were issued by H. M. Petroleum Department, and some accounts have appeared in publications of H. M. Geological Survey. The chief paper so far dealing with the subject is by Veatch,l and the present paper will in a measureDownloaded from http://onepetro.org/trans/article-pdf/70/01/1053/2178052/spe-924053-g.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 supplement that. The drilling campaign was undertaken as a war measure, for in 1917 the oil shortage for war purposes became so acute, because of the activity of the German submarines, that it was imperative to ascertain as soon as possible the value of home oil prospects. The firm of S. Pearson & Son had been looking into the oil question for some time and was at this period intending to drill several test wells. In the summer of 1917, the Government, on account of the firm's knowledge of the oil business and the information it had collected on British oil, approached Lord Cowdray, the head of the firm, with a view to immediate drilling as a war measure, and proposed taking up the work itself if Lord Cowdray was not prepared to do so. At this time the British Government was spending nearly eight million pounds sterling daily in the prosecution of the war, in com parison to which the cost of a few test wells would be small while the results, if successful, would be of the greatest value to the nation. Accord ingly, PearsoDs were made agents and given the supervision and direction of the work (the services being without compensation), and men and machinery were ordered in America. For drilling purposes, it was neces sary to take the sites under Defense of the Realm Acts, which were war regulations of a temporary nature. The wells were scattered, to try out various conditions. Most of the wells were not going until shortly after the Armistice, and the ending of the war altered the plan of drilling cam paign. The results achieved justified the undertaking and expenditure incurred. Oil was proved; and although it was not possible to extend and develop the findings brought forth by the drilling, on account of the limitations under which the work was done, the tests were of a com prehensive nature and will afford a valuable guide in future prospect ing. In a country like Great Britain, with its large population, excellent transportation, ready oil market, mild climate, and other facilities, a small well is more apt to be a commercial proposition than a similiar well in other countries. What might be considered as unfavorable aspects from the wildcatter's standpoint are the difficulties in the way of securing land readily and the obstacles liable to be encountered from the -------------------------- ------ - - ---------------- 1 A. C. Veatch: Petroleum Resources of Great Britain. Trans. (1921) 66, 7. E. L. ICKES 1055 mining interests, who would not view any too kipdly the location of a well near a mine workings. GENERAL GEOLOGICAL FEATURES The English wells were located in the Midlands, an imR,ortant indus trial region occupying the heart of England about 125 miles northwest of London. In point of superficial distribution and structure, England may be divided into two parts: the flat-dipping Mesozoic and Tertiary Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/trans/article-pdf/70/01/1053/2178052/spe-924053-g.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 rocks covering the eastern, southeastern, and southern portions of the country and the outcrops of Carboniferous and older rocks, which form the western and northern portions. The older areas show more deformation and usually give rise to a more rugged topography. Belts of Mesozoic also occur in the older rocks and a notable depression filled with the younger formations crosses the cO\lntry, in a northwesterly direction, through the south Midlands, Cheshire and Liverpool, and separates the older rocks of Wales from those of central England. As would be expected, the two groups are separated by a marked unconformity. Borings starting in the Mesozoic, on reaching the Paleo zoic floor beneath, sometimes encounter Carboniferous, as in the case that led to the discovery of the concealed Kent coalfield southeast of London; or the drill may strike Devonian, Silurian, or other formations, which make up the floor upon which the younger rocks are resting. , The outcropping rocks of the north of England are moderately deformed Carboniferous. Along the Scottish border, these are inter rupted by a wide belt of highly folded Silurian with a northeasterly trend; beyond this belt in central Scotland, the Carboniferous reappears in an isolated basin in the vicinity of Glasgow and Edinburgh. On account of this interruption in their continuity, there is some difficulty in correlat ing the Carboniferous members of the two countries. All the borings started, and presumably ended, in the Carbonifer ous. Those in England were in two groups: one on the east side of the Pennines in Derbyshire, the other on the west side in North Stafford shire. The Scottish wells were located in the Carboniferous basin near Edinburgh. The Pennine Chain is sometimes :teferred to as the "backbone" of England. It starts north of Derby, coincident with the appearance of the Carboniferous, and continues north through the mid-portion of the country to the borders of Scotland as a series of hills and tablelands rarely attaining an elevation over 2000 feet. INDICATIONS OF PETROLEUM Oil manifestations of various types can be said to be of general occurrence in certain districts of the United Kingdom. They range in 1056 RECENT EXPLORATION FOR PETROLEUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM character from veinle~s and fragments of bitumen and wax through 'out cropping oil sands to actual seepages. At some place or other, practically every formation from the pre-Cambrian to the Cretaceous can be found to contain one or more of these types. A characteristic of most of the fluid varieties from the Paleozoic is the high wax content, causing the oil to set at ordinary temperatures. Many occurrences have been dis covered in coal and lead mining operations, from early times; most of the indications have been found associated with the CarboniferousDownloaded from http://onepetro.org/trans/article-pdf/70/01/1053/2178052/spe-924053-g.pdf by guest on 24 September 2021 and most of these are located in the Midlands and Scotland. We will begin the description pf some of the occurrences with Derbyshire. At Riddings colliery, situated on the crest of the fold tested by Ironville well No.1, oil was found in the Kilburn coal workings of the lower coal measures. For several years, about 1850, James Young utilized this oil and separated such fractions as kerosene, lubricating oil, and wax. On the exhaustion of the supply, either through abandonment of the workings or cessation of the seepage, Young, believing the oil was derived from coal, experimented with Scotch torbanite, which gave somewhat analogous products on distillation, and transferred his opera tions to Scotland and founded the oil-shale industry.