Papers - Foreign Production - Petroleum Production in Rumania in 1929 (Special Correspondence)

On the map of Europe the shield-shaped area included in the boundaries of Rumania appears too small to constitute a very important factor in the wold's oil production. The country has a total area of 122,000 square miles of territory, about one-fifth of 1 per cent. of the world's surface, from which about 21/2 per cent. of the world's oil was produced in 1929. This relatively small area also constitutes one of the known billion-barrel reserves of the world. Oil has been found in various localities in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, extending more than 100 miles in length at their base. It is rather unusual that, while the extent of prospective territory seems to be large, the area of the commercially productive pools is comparatively small. Oil accumulation in Rumania is closely associated with salt stocks. Shows of oil are encountered from the Pliocene down to the Cretaceous. Most of the production, however, comes from the Pliocene, the chief producing sands of which are the Dacic and the Meotic, although some oil is produced from the Levantic and the Pontic. The Meotic as a source of oil was known for many years, but the intensive output from this sand series is a comparatively recent development and accounts in a big measure for the steady increase in Rumanian production. In the early part of the summer of 1929 the Astra-Romano (Royal Dutch) completed a well at Moreni in what is thought by some to be a fourth Meotic sand (a new sand series) at a depth of 5200 ft. with an initial production of 2000 bbl. a day of 41" gravity oil. The development of this new horizon has been somewhat retarded by the disastrous fire which occurred at Romano-Americana's well No. 160 in Moreni, but its discovery adds materially to the future life of the Moreni area, one of the country's oldest fields. Rumania's production for 1929 is estimated at 35,556,000 bbl., a daily average of 97,400 bbl. This compares with the total of 31,542,000 bbl. for the previous year, a daily average of 86,180 bbl., or an increase of 12.73 per cent. Rumania now occupies seventh position in the world's oil picture, it having been replaced as the sixth in importance by the Dutch East Indies in 1929. Table 1 shows a comparison of production by districts and fields.