1208 H O W A R D : E L E C T R I F I C A T I O N OF T H E P E T R O L E U M I N D U S T R Y Journal Α . I. Ε . E .

showing the comparison of shut-downs with gas-engine drive and electric-motor drive in a certain field in Texas. In this connection I should like to say that I have similar data which show that the percentage of shut-downs with the electric drive averages 40 per cent less than the shut-downs with gas-engine drive. These shut-downs are from all causes, including engines, belts, rigs, rods, and tubing.

When a power salesman or an electrical man approaches an operator, the first question asked is, " H o w much is the power going to cos t ?" W h e n he gives the information that, for the aver­age well, it will run any where from $80 to $90 and for some wells as high as $295, while in other cases it will be as low as $45 a month, he is immediately told that it is too expensive with the further comment , " W h y should I use electric drive when I have all the free gas I can possibly use? In fact, some of it goes up into the air and is wasted." The answer then is in behalf of maintenance and fewer shut-downs.

M r . Howard passed lightly over the matter of labor charges. Wi th the electric drive, I know of cases where one pumper handles as many as 33 wells, but the average number of wells per man will be in the neighborhood of 15 or 16. On the other hand, the pumpers handling gas engines are doing well if they can take care of 8, as in many cases where the engine is repeatedly giving trouble and requiring attention, one pumper to every 2 wells is quite often necessary.

Another feature is the roustabout gang. These are the fellows who do the heavy work in the field, on rods, tubing and derrick. It is to be expected that with the percentage of shut-downs of wells being reduced 40 per cent, the roustabout gang can also be reduced b y a similar percentage, and actual results bear out this expectation.

On a lease where there are, say, 100 wells operating with gas-engine drive, and they have 125 roustabouts, upon changing over to electric motor drive, the number of roustabouts can be reduced to approximately 75 men. This represents a saving at $165 per month per man or $8250 per month, or $99,000 per year. It can readily be seen that this item is one that should be taken into consideration in advancing electrification.

Ε. B . F r e e m a n : I don ' t believe M r . Howard brought out one of the things that is uppermost in m y mind with regard to the use of electricity in oil-field development, that is, the pumping of oil wells b y means of natural gas. In the mid-continent field in Oklahoma, the Seminole oil field, (from which I hail, and which has been producing about 320,000 barrels of oil per day ) , is being pumped b y means of electric motors on air compressors or gas compressors. This, in many cases, has increased the flow of the well 100 per cent, and, b y the way, it is an excellent thing for the power companies because it is a 24-hour load running at 100 per cent load factor, or thereabouts.

I believe he did mention in his paper an article from the Tulsa World, telling of the Amerado Petroleum Company going through a big sleet storm without an interruption. That happened to be on our lines and they are one of our largest power consumers. They have one station that consists of twenty 75-h. p . motors and four 100-h. p . motors that has been running continuously with a shut-down of one or two motors at a t ime for about 60 days.

The Seminole oil field is a comparat ively new field. Six months ago they struck the first well and I bel ieve we had a load of 75 h. p . Due to the fact that we had a high-tension line in that vicinity we were able to' take on considerable load and at the present time we are pumping to the pipe lines about 80 per cent of the output of that field and have connected in the one field a little more than 12,000 h. p . in the last six months, and the majority of this is motors on air compressors.

Β . Κ· H o w a r d : I probably should have been more explicit in predicting that the petroleum industry would be totally electrified in all it* branches within ten years. I meant b y this that all new development would be electrified where electric service was available and in some cases where the oil companies would generate their own power for electric drive.

WTith reference to pumping wells by means of natural gas: There has been very little of this done in Texas; however, there has been considerable development in the pumping of wells b y means of compressed air in this section.

M y company has recently installed twelve 75-h. p. , motor-driven air compressors which are producing over 6000 barrels of oil per day. These motors replaced gas engines, and it was found upon replacing engines with motors that eight motor-driven compressors would supply the same quantity of air at the same pressure as twelve engine-driven compressors, due to the constant speed with sufficient horsepower to drive each unit.

W e have just obtained figures, on pipe-line pumping covering a 30-day period, on one of the stations having installed three 200-h. p . , motor-driven, reciprocating pumps, two operating and one as a spare. There were handled during the 30 -day period, 795,310 barrels of oil at 500-lb. pressure through a 10-in. pipe line, consuming 116,400 kw-hr.; and in another station, on the same line, there were handled during the same period 609,266 barrels of oil at 600 lb. pressure, using 159,100 kw-hr. pumping into a line a part of which was 8-in. and the balance consisting of two 6-in. lines, causing higher pressure due to size of line. The cost of pumping was approximately two mills per barrel for electric energy. We understand that the equivalent cost with oil-engine-driven pipe-line pumps is approximately three one-half mills, which takes into account the difference in labor and maintenance.

In conclusion, I feel that the opportunities for the development of the use of electricity in the petroleum industry have now reached the point where the operating executives of the oil companies will receive and seriously consider electricity more intensively than they have in the past, during the pioneerng of this field, and we, engaged in the electrical industry, can look forward to a very substantial amount of business from this source.

D R O N E O F A I R P L A N E I L L U M I N A T E S L A N D I N G F I E L D

No longer will it be necessary to keep airplane landing fields brilliantly lighted all night when a new invention only recently demonstrated is perfected to the point of being manufactured in quantity. The noise made by the hum of an airplane 1000 ft. in the air closed the switch that lighted a bank of flood lights at Bettis Field, McKeesport, in the first demonstration of the sound sensitive automatic lighting apparatus developed by T. Spooner, an electrical research engineer.

Merle Northrup, an air pilot, completed the experi­ment by bringing the plane to the ground in the glare of powerful lights turned on by the steady throb of the airplane's motors.

The device uses the drone of the airplane to control electric energy. From a tiny current at first this controlled energy is increased in power by amplifiers until it is strong enough to throw a good-sized lighting switch.

A loud-speaker operated reversely is the "ear" of the mechanism. Laid on its back it gives the ap­paratus a directive effect with reference to noises from above. A microphone completes the auditory section. Passing through several amplifiers the impulse then passes through the time-limit relay, the last step before the current automatically throws the lighting switch.

The switch locks automatically and the lights remain on until the switch is thrown by a field attendant.— Tel. and Tel. Age.