Arakan Library - Drilling Methods and Production

Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality.

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Arakan Library was founded by a group of Arakan Action Association (AAA) in exile in Thailand from Burma in 2007 doing to voice for the knowledge, the people democratic and human rights.

Arakan Action Association (AAA)

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Oil in Burma

by <Marilyn v. Longuir>

Drilling Methods and Production

In the 1870s the experienced drillers in the world were Americans and Canadians. The Canadian industry had begun in 1861, just two years after the drilling of the first well at Titusville (Corley 1983, 1:36). Surprisingly, a divergence in drilling techniques saw the Americans using the cable-tool system of drilling (sometimes referred to as rope drilling) with the heavy drilling bit attached to a long rope. Repeated blows broke the soil or rock below and after this "spoil" was bailed out, "steel pipe 'casing' [was] inserted joint by joint to follow the tools" down (Burma Research Society, 27). Canadians, on the other hand, preferred the rod method.

Interestingly, the Chinese had used a similar form of rope drilling for many centuries. This technique was developed in Sichuan in drilling for brine. In the 1820s, after reading of "the boreholes of Ziliujing" in Sichuan, in the letters of a French missionary, L.J.M. Imbert, European engineers first became interested in this method of drilling. Hans Ulrich Vogel (91) has described how Europeans had "limited success… [because] they used rope instead of the stronger and more elastic bamboo cable." Despite later improvements in this method, Europeans continued to favour solid rod drilling, while Americans preferred the cable method. The success of the Chinese method is quite apparent when it is realized that in 1835 the most famous well at Xinhai reached a kilometer underground (86 and 90).

Canadian drillers were first employed by Burmah Oil at Yenangyaung in 1889, but within a few years, that company reverted to the American cable tool system (Corley 1983, 1:36). In Arakan, Canadian rod drilling was to persist. When in December 1908 to January 1909, Edwin Pascoe (1912, 180), a geologist in the employ of Geological Survey of India, visited the Arakan fields, he was surprised to see that Arakanese drillers were still using a modification of the Canadian rod system learnt from Canadian drillers employed by the Boronga Oil Company (Pascoe has referred to this as the Baronga Oil Company, which eventually went into liquidation in 1885) and by a second company, the Australian Oil Company. Pascoe described the Arakanese adaptation as follows:

A tripod of three hewn tree-trunks about 40 or 50 feet long is erected as a primitive derrick, supporting a pulley over which passes a rope. To one end of this is attached the drilling tool which is chisel-shaped; the other end is fastened to a wooden lever worked by coolies who can raise the chisel and let it drop alternately …. As the chisel disappears little down the hole, wooden rods are screwed on to the end of it; the 'drillings' are baled out in the usual way with a 'sand-pump' or 'baler'.

Pascoe explained that the companies, presumably the Boronga Oil Company and Australian Oil Company had used "the same system of drilling on a more elaborate plan … and their wells …. [only needed to be] cased for the first 18 to 20 feet." This was because the wells were only 500 feet (152 m) deep and the strata was firm. This contrasted with Yenangyaung where with the American cable – tool system, the drilled hole was constantly cased. As a protection, because of the heavy rainfall in Arakan, a number of derricks were thatched. Pascoe (190) was impressed by the Arakanese workers and thought them "more enterprising than those at Yenangyaung."

Intriguingly, although the companies and Senior seemed to rely on imported drillers and supervisors, Willoughby Savage, who appears to have survived on the oil fields for almost thirty years (198-99) used an Arakanese overseer, Arakanese drillers and labourers, and "a few men from the Madras coast" on the Boronga Islands. Even the boring tools and plant used by Savage's workmen were locally made (Report, H.Buckle). This would have resulted in considerably lower costs both in wages and equipment. After 1886, as the Yenangyaung oil-fields expanded in Upper Burma, many of Burmah Oil employees were Indian, but most worked in the refineries rather than on the fields.

On Ramree, at the Yenangyaung field, 400 wells were eventually sunk. This gives a good idea of the extent of activity on the field. Most productive wells were successful at 250 -300 feet (76 and 91 m), although occasionally as deep as 500 feet (152 m) (Pascoe 1912, 191-92). The wells were drilled in "two parallel bands about 300 feet apart," but though oil bearing sands were struck, production was insufficient to encourage continuance of large-scale operations (Brown and Dey, 370).

On Eastern Boronga Island, Savage owned fifteen wells, though only two, "Bogyi" and "Lugyi", were in production. "Bogyi" had struck oil in March 1887 at 160 feet (48 m) and was averaging 180 gallons (818 L) per day, though in the beginning the oil flow had been greater. The oil was raised by hand pumps and the well was cased by wooden pipes to 110 feet (34 m). Drilling had been slower with "Lugyi" due to a very hard clay, but this well had reached 180 feet (55 m). The practice with "Lugyi" was to remove the accumulated oil in the mornings, approximately 5 gallons (23 L) each day, and then recommence boring for the remainder of the day. Both wells had begun production in March 1887. Savage's oil was loaded in barrels and transported to the Akyab market by two boats, carrying sixty-five barrels each trip. Savage, who appears to have been very resourceful, had even "invented a pattern of tin burner for use with the crude oil which… [had] been very generally adopted" (Report, H. Buckle).

Savage's only competitor on the island was Senior, who had purchased Boronga Oil. "Very large sums of money" had been spent by the previous owners, and Senior was employing a professional Canadian driller to prepare new borings; work was progressing well. Three of his ten wells were pumped by steam with production averaging 40 gallons (182 L) per day. The oil flowed into a barrel standing on its end, from where it was piped to storage tanks. Later the oil was decanted into barrels which were "rolled along a jetty into the Company's boat" (Report, H.Buckle). Like Savage's oil, this product was also sold on the Akyab market.

On a following page, a simple table prepared by Buckle, the Commissioner of Arakan Division, and contained in his report, sets out the position of the oil industry of Arakan as of 30 April 1888. By contrast, in 1888, yearly production from the Yenangyaung Oil Field was running at well over 2.6 million gallons (11,819,600 L) (Myanma Oil Corporation (MOC), Table 1).