Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1919 — Warmth Increases Oil Flow. [ARTICLE]

Warmth Increases Oil Flow.

An electrical method of carrying warmth to the bottom Of oil wells has been found in many cases greatly to increase the flow of oil. The heating process, says Popular Mechanics Magazine, decreases the viscidity Of the oil, usually occasioned by the admission of air to the well and the cooling of the rock bed. Minute crevices and capillary channels which afford easy passage to warm, thin oil become quite impassable if the oil gums. The electric heating method not only thins the oil but often generates gas whose pressure helps the of! to the surface. The system found military use in the abandoned oil fields of Roumania and Galicia.