Jasper County Democrat, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1902 — PETROLEUM. [ARTICLE]

PETROLEUM.

Crude petroleum, next to coal, le the most Important mineral deposit of the state. While the supply of natural gas Is steadily decreasing, the oil production Is gradually Increasing, the value of ths petroleum product having Increased from *2,230,000 In 1898 to *6,000,000 In 1901. This, too, fn spite of the fact that the development of the oil field has been restricted to the northern rim of the oil-gas belt, the courts having stopped oil exploitation In the field where natural gas Is still producing in paying quantities. As the gas wells become exhausted oil wells will take their place in the same region and will supply fuel almost as cheap as the natural gaa OH not being wasted as the natural gas Is, the deposit will not be so soon exhausted. At present the oil product of Indiana ts consumed chiefly out of the state, but when the oil In the region now occupied by the natural gas Industry Is produced It will be In the main utilized locally to furnish fuel to tho mills which natural gas brought there. In most cases corporations and pipe lines holding gas leases have protected themselves for the future by securing oil privileges on the same lands they now control for gas supply. The oil field already developed Is but a fraction of the known 011-bearlng Trenton rock region of the state. Petroleum occurs also In other formations than the Trenton limestone. The most prollflo oil well In Indiana ts not In Trenton limestone rock. The Trenton limestone Itself did not generate the oil or gas. The porous character of this formation In localities simply served as a receptacle for the fluid distilled from animal remains during the Silurian ages.