Petroleum Production - Foreign - Persia and Iraq (With Discussion)

The production from the Maidan-i-Naftun area for the year ending March, 1928, was 5,340,000 tons (40,210,200 bbl.), an increase of nearly 13 per cent. over the production for the year ending in March, 1927. The production by years since the opening of the field in 1912 is given in the following table: [1 ton = 7.53 bbl.] Year Ended MaRch Tons Year Ended March Tons 1912 (7 months)............. 43,084 1920....................... 1,354,631 1913........................ 80,800 1921....................... 1,767,070 1914........................ 273,635 1922....................... 2,310,098 1915........................ 375,977 1923....................... 2,913,908 1916........................ 449,394 1924....................... 3,583,000 1917........................ 644,074 1925....................... 4,221,000 1918........................ 897,402 1926....................... 4,470,000 1919....................... 1,081,919 1927....................... 4,735,000 1928....................... 5,340,000 The actual production represents only a small proportion of the potential production. The Masjid-i-Suleiman Field The present producing unit, the Masjid-I-Suleiman, is an anticline some 20 miles in length by 4 miles in width, including three domes as so far proved. The producing horizon is a very open, dolomitic limestone, which, while showing much variation in texture and porosity, is so connected that the lowering of pressure in one section of the field quickly affects the whole area. The topography of the field is broken, with differences of well elevations of as much as 1100 ft. The depths to the limestone vary from about 800 to about 5000 ft. The closed-in pressure of the oil wells varies from zero to 50 lb. per sq. in. and that of the gas wells is about 450 Ib. Although the static oil level may be several hundred feet below ground level, in oil wells of high elevation, all the wells flow continuously or intermittently after they are once started—the majority continuously. The gas is very high in hydrogen sulfide in gas-oil wells of low pressure.