Fort Worth Meeting of Petroleum Division

THE fall meeting of the Petroleum Division at Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 19 and 20, attracted even a larger number of members and guests than had been expected. Over three hundred registered the first day though the attendance and interest in the program was so keen that it was necessary to begin technical sessions without. waiting for registration. Members were present from as far away as Venezuela and while the larger attendance was from the Mid-Continent and Texas fields, California and the eastern states were represented by influential delegations. One pleasing feature of the meeting was the presence of a number of the older executives of the oil industry who evi-dently have come to realize the importance of the work the Division is doing in advancing technology. The meeting was held under the auspices of the Production Engineering section of the Division. E. 0. Bennett, chief production engineer for the Marland Oil Co. of Texas, and chairman of the Fort Worth Sec-tion. of the A.I.M.E., served as general chairman. J. B. Umpleby, president of the Petroleum Reclamation Co. and vice-chairman of the. Division was in charge of. the program with a special committee in charge of the technical sessions, of which A. C. Rubel of the Union Oil Co. was chairman. The sessions were held in the ball room of the Texas Hotel, which also served as general headquarters. The Wednesday morning session was devoted to the air-gas lift, John M. Lovejoy, chairman of the Division, presiding. The first paper, on the "Principles Under-lying the Air-Gas Lift." by J. 0. Lewis, was presented by R. R. Brandenthaler and discussed by Messrs. Love-joy and Millikan. Mr. Brandenthaler's own paper on the "Effect of Gas Lift on Physical Properties of Oil" followed and was discussed by Messrs. Umpleby, Walker, Mills, Bennett, Williams and Van der Gracht, the dis-cussion turning mainly on what is known and what unknown regarding oxidation of oil under various con-ditions. The third paper of the morning, "Handling Recirculated Gas," by R. D. Gibbs, was presented by Mr. Taylor. The discussion that followed was general and brought out a large amount of data on the costs and results of compression versus, absorption in total gasoline recovery from gas. The next group of papers dealt with "Mechanical Installations of Air-Gas Lift," the first by E. V. Foran on the Texas district outside the Gulf Coast, the second by L. L. Brundred on the Gulf Coast, the third on Kansas and Oklahoma other than Seminole by R. W. Bond, the fourth on Seminole by C. R. Swartz, and the fifth relating to California by H. C. Miller. Some of these were read by title in order to give more time for discussion which was active and participated in by. Mills, Griswold and others.