Onshore oil discovered in the UK in 1901

The UK has a number of onshore oilfields mostly discovered after 1980, the largest one being the Wytch Farm field (largest in Europe), discovered in 1973 which contains around 65 million tonnes of oil (479 million barrels).

Although this is tiny compared to the Middle East fields, would its discovery in say 1901 bring forward the date of full oil firing in RN battleships etc?
 
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It's unlikely. If the UK found oil as early as 1901, there just wouldn't be the technology to extract it for at least 50 years and there's always the danger of oil platfoms being big, fat targets.
 
I've already posted at the Warship Projects Discussion Board, but since it's being discussed here as well, I'll post here as well.

According to Wikipedia the shallowest reservoir in the field is 750 meters(2,500 feet) deep. I don't think they could drill that deep in 1901(and they certainly couldn't reach the deeper reservoirs at 900 and 1600 meters).
 
I've already posted at the Warship Projects Discussion Board, but since it's being discussed here as well, I'll post here as well.

According to Wikipedia the shallowest reservoir in the field is 750 meters(2,500 feet) deep. I don't think they could drill that deep in 1901(and they certainly couldn't reach the deeper reservoirs at 900 and 1600 meters).
That I'll believe. A lot of the early oil was very near the surface.
 
???ON SHORE. No oil platforms. What tech is needed?


Dathi,

Lots of tech actually.

You'll need the geological theory to predict the presence of such deposits and the formations that can potentially hold them, the exploratory tech to identify the deposits, and only then the drilling tech to reach them and exploit them.

While the deep drilling tech will be available in the US by the 30s, none of the other requirements will be available until after WW2.


Bill
 
Dathi,

Lots of tech actually.

You'll need the geological theory to predict the presence of such deposits and the formations that can potentially hold them, the exploratory tech to identify the deposits, and only then the drilling tech to reach them and exploit them.

While the deep drilling tech will be available in the US by the 30s, none of the other requirements will be available until after WW2.


Bill
I THINK (I hope), I meant the question to be real, not rhetorical. Certainly the poster I was responding to didn't SEEM to notice that we were talking about ON shore oil production, and when he talked about the tech not being available, I assumed that HE thought we were talking off shore tech. Of course, I may be maligning the guy.

I actually did mean to allow for the possibility of lacking tech for land production, but my post was too terse and not well thought out.

Thank you for responding politely, and explaining what tech was missing.
 
D K Brown has a good section on the introduction of oil burning in 'The Grand Fleet'.

Supply was an issue which made me wonder if the UK had 'homegrown' supplies, would it speed up the introduction in large ships or would the need for worldwide service still see coal being used - Brown does mention the 1908 Beagle class destroyer using coal due to lack of oil at supply depots (and being 25% more expensive than an equivalent oil burner).

Been flicking through my copy of Daniel Yergen's 'The Prize', how was the size of fields determined before seismology etc which from what I understand made use of systems developed during WW1?

What would be the size of 'homegrown' field required to make the Admiralty happy about oil burning only in large ships?
 
There was/is an oil field underneath Sherwood Forest (yes, that Sherwood Forest) that was discovered around 1940. Drilling started during the war, but major drilling and pumping of the oil waited till US drill crews came over in 1942-43.
 
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