WI: Matzen Oil Field is Discovered Between the Anschluss and WWII Starting

[Deleted member 1487]

I base it on common sense. Germany had very little oil production, nobody builds drilling equipment, or trains personnel that aren't going to be used. As the article you provided states this was a hastily ensembled unit, that had to get some quick training in Romania, and used what equipment they could steal from the French. The oil company mentioned was only formed in 1941. Their capabilities weren't that great because they couldn't do much with the destroyed Maikop Oilfields. Mobile distillation unit are a far cry from large scale industrial production. Just being near a river doesn't mean all the necessary infrastructure is already there. These kinds of projects take years to bare fruit, and German Industry was already overburdened with war time demands.

Germany did produce a fair bit of oil, inherited the Austrian and Czech oil industries, and also had international work as well.
Then there was this:

Kontinentale Öl – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

The group were all civilian oil men set up to exploit Caucasus and Middle Eastern oil in 1941 when it was decided that they would have to have an advanced unit to operate and repair any captured deposits. Some of the equipment was French, not all of it. And the training in Romania was basic combat training, they already were workers of the petroleum industry. The Soviets apparently creatively demolished the captured facility and infrastructure so that the German oil team basically had to build the entire pumping operation and transport from scratch.

Mobile distillation units? They were only pumping and transporting the oil back to be refined in Romania.

If they had the resources to rebuild Maikop from scratch they had them to do it in their backyard.

Yes the Soviets hired American Oil Men to develop their oil industry, but by 1949 those days were over. In later years the Soviet oil industry fell far behind the West, but that's a Cold War story for another time.

Yes, the US oil men were out before WW2 and the Soviets never caught up to the West. When did the Soviets really develop a modern oil industry? Not until well after 1949 because they damaged the oil deposits rather badly during their period of exploitation and required modern western equipment and oil men to fix.

 

[marathag]

Not knowing about the geology of the area, could Matzen be developed earlier? A quick search hasn’t turned up any special properties. Is it just a matter of drilling in the right place or do you need to be able to drill deep? Or through rock? Or contain higher pressures?

All doable without US oil extraction innovations, but Royal Dutch Shell and Socony were on good terms with Howard Hughes, were doing explorations before the Nazis made them unwelcome.

And German and Austrian Oil Geologists just were not as good as even US Wildcatters at this point

Though with oil, a dry hole at 6000ft down, might not be more than a couple miles away and a thousand feed deeper, as was the case in Austria. Test Wells just missed that field

 

[marathag]

nobody builds drilling equipment,

at this point, the drilling needed for water wells and oil, are not all that different.
If you are willing to take the time, even old school cable/percussion holes can go really deep, thousands of feed down.

 

[cjc]

OK so if germany can develop the filed how much can it produce and how much dose germany need?

 

[ArtosStark]

Having done some research, it appears that it is a case of drilling in the right place. It’s not a huge area, however, and as noted above, you can come up dry and be right beside it. The Austrians had been looking for a domestic oil source since losing Galicia. They only really found it in 1934. But it could have been earlier. Socony Vacuum was doing geological surveys in the Vienna basin in 1925 but withdrew from Europe by the time the survey was finished. There were oil shows in 1930 but the first viable well was only started in 1934. The Austrians were still expanding production when the Nazi’s took over, and most licences were cut short and given to German companies.

If you are looking for a POD to give the Nazi’s more oil, you might want to look at allowing the Austrians more time to develop the fields they had. That could lead to discovering Matzen pre-war as well. If you just trade Matzen for the other fields you have only gained 2 million tons for the loss of the 1.3 million that they got up to in OTL. To really make a difference you are going to want both.

 

[Deleted member 1487]

If you are looking for a POD to give the Nazi’s more oil, you might want to look at allowing the Austrians more time to develop the fields they had. That could lead to discovering Matzen pre-war as well. If you just trade Matzen for the other fields you have only gained 2 million tons for the loss of the 1.3 million that they got up to in OTL. To really make a difference you are going to want both.

The 1.2 million tons in the Vienna basin were mostly from Czech wells IIRC.

Oil and gas deposits in the Czech Republic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

During World War II, oil production in Moravia became strategically important for the German war effort and was expanded by German companies. The largest company, DEA (Deutsche Erdöl A.G.), had 1,200 wells just around Hodonín. Refineries bombed during the Oil Campaign of World War II included those at Brüx, Bratislava (Apollo refinery), Dubová, Kralupy, Kolín, and Pardubice (Fanto Werke).

DEA AG - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ArtosStark]

The 1.2 million tons in the Vienna basin were mostly from Czech wells IIRC.

Oil and gas deposits in the Czech Republic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

DEA AG - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

According to this 1.3 million tons was coming out of 102 wells in the Vienna Basin in 1943:

Oil and gas in Austria - Vienna Basin Section

It doesn't specify which part of the basin, so you may be right, but they did have some oil coming before that, as it lists "In 1930 Raky Danubia reported oil shows in their well "Windisch Baumgarten 1a", but it was not until 1934 that the well "Goesting 2" came in with a daily production of 40 tons; Austria became an oil-producing country. Socony Vacuum came back to Austria, formed a 50/50 % joint venture with Shell (RAG) and secured large areas in the Vienna Basin for oil and gas exploration in 1935. At the end of 1937 total annual oil production in Austria was 32.858 tons"

32,858 is pocket change in comparison to Matzen but I don't know if the earlier wells were at full production. If there is still development potential there, then my basic idea still holds. Let them find these earlier, develop them, and through more interest by large oil companies bring in more geological experts that might be able to identify Matzen as a possible drilling area.

 

[Scott Washburn]

Having more fuel would certainly have helped the Luftwaffe. By later in the war new pilots were being sent into combat with only 30 hours flight time because of fuel shortages.

 

[ArtosStark]

Having more fuel would certainly have helped the Luftwaffe. By later in the war new pilots were being sent into combat with only 30 hours flight time because of fuel shortages.

From what I can find, Matzen oil has an API of around 25. This puts it on the heavy side of Medium crude. That's not bad, but it will take some investment into refineries if you want to make high octane aviation fuel. You might also need additives that Germany cannot get a hold of. It would still improve their chances over OTL, but they could still be limited by their ability to get a hold of other products.

 

[Deleted member 1487]

From what I can find, Matzen oil has an API of around 25. This puts it on the heavy side of Medium crude. That's not bad, but it will take some investment into refineries if you want to make high octane aviation fuel. You might also need additives that Germany cannot get a hold of. It would still improve their chances over OTL, but they could still be limited by their ability to get a hold of other products.

Almost all of German avgas came from synthetic production because the base product had a higher octane than the refined natural oil products available in Europe (the Germans and Romanians didn't have the Houndry Process AFAIK, which made high octane fuel productions refined from regular crude possible). However if more of the basic fuel needs were being met by natural oil than more synthetic production could be focused on avgas vs. 'regular' fuel.
The European Axis had TEL (thanks to Standard oil giving it to them right before the war started), so I don't think there were any additives available (globally speaking) at the time that the Axis didn't make themselves.

 

[marathag]

That's not bad, but it will take some investment into refineries if you want to make high octane aviation fuel

Far easier than starting from Coal, as with the synthetic plants, with a 6 to 1 exchange factor.
Need to invest in alkalization stage in refining more sour crudes, if better fuel grades are desired from diesel and lighter fuels

 

[BlackDragon98]

The only way for the Matzen fields to save the Nazis is if their 1934 coup in Austria succeeds somehow and Austria is integrated into Germany in 1934.
The field is found in 1935 and by early 1940, production is full swing.

 

[raharris1973]

If you want oil to be developed in time to give something to NSDAP something for the war, have the prospect discovered at the end of the 20s or early 30s, and then have Anschluss happen early in 1934.

An even more interesting option in some ways is if the field is discovered and exploited from the early 1920s and the republic of Austria becomes a known petro-state. Depression reduces its market, but if not overleveraged, the Austrian Republic may have a nest egg going into the Depression. With the oil reserves known, it may be considered too valuable by Italy and France to be permitted to fall into German hands.

 

[BlackDragon98]

If you want oil to be developed in time to give something to NSDAP something for the war, have the prospect discovered at the end of the 20s or early 30s, and then have Anschluss happen early in 1934.

An even more interesting option in some ways is if the field is discovered and exploited from the early 1920s and the republic of Austria becomes a known petro-state. Depression reduces its market, but if not overleveraged, the Austrian Republic may have a nest egg going into the Depression. With the oil reserves known, it may be considered too valuable by Italy and France to be permitted to fall into German hands.

Have the big reserve be found right after the depression, in 1930.
That way it lies untouched and ignored because the entire global economy has gone to shit and no one really cares about one more deposit of oil.

 

[kalamona]

Now, im totally without the details and the small, but important nuances, however:

Since the field is next to the Danube, transportation is solved (until the allied forces start to mine the river, but that happened only in late 44 if i remember correctly OTL).
Also, if i remember correctly, a good chunk - maybe majority- of the refinery capacity was at that time along the Danube, German and allied too (Hungarian, Romanian).

I would dare to say, that if the wells are up and running, refinery capacity and transportation is at least a solvable issue.

Now, to get the wells up and running..

The hungarian fields were discovered about 37, and around 39-40 they already provided meaningful amounts of oil, with around 42 reaching full capacity (not, because post-war there was a kind of expansion - if i remember correctly).
Note: this was achieved by and with US support, the company was hungarian-american, with immense american technical support.

So, easy way: discover the wells as soon as possible but no later than 37, with american support (heck, even the hungarian company can have a look around because, reasons and got lucky). They will develop the fields and any critical/necessary infrastructure - Germany can exploit it late (like GM)