ESSO ESSAY
written for a local radio station
by: Capt. J. F. Fisher (probably 1950s)
The little word ‘oil’ of only three letters is very comprehensive in its meaning, it may relate to any one of the large number of oils from cod liver oil, olive oil and right through a long range of varied types to a heavy mineral engine oil.
The oil with which I am concerned is properly defined as petroleum or rock oil and it is inflammable, bituminous oil composed of hundreds of components known as hydrocarbons. This crude petroleum oozes or gushes from a rock formation beneath the earth’s crust. The use of petroleum and its by-products as a source of power has developed so much in this 20th century that the modern world of industry has become completely dependent on this crude oil that is found in many distant parts of the world.
The average man still thinks of petroleum as the source of the petrol which powers his car but today, and even more so in the future, it plays a much greater part in his life than he realizes. Machinery depends on lubricating oil for smooth and efficient operation - without oil for fuel diesel and petrol engines would be unknown and air transport only a dream. The same crude oil from which paraffin was once the chief product for use as lamp oil, now gives us, not only fuel for our motor cars, bicycles, tractors, machines of war and high-octane spirit for aviation but butadiene for synthetic rubber, special purpose lubricants, waxes, rust preventatives and medicinal paraffin. The residue, after distillation, is asphalt and is used to surface our roads. From crude petroleum is also produced a more durable and versatile range of paints, lacquers and varnishes. Textiles spun from petroleum may go into our suiting and fabrics to adorn our homes. Plastics from petroleum will almost certainly bring forth a complete new range of household appliances and utensils. These facts give some small idea of the vast importance of crude petroleum and its by-products to this modern world.
Crude petroleum as it comes from the well is a black, messy substance, something similar to thin treacle in appearance. The hydrocarbons from which it is composed boil at differing temperatures all the way from normal up to 1,000 degrees F and because of these differences in boiling temperatures the hydrocarbons can be separated into a large number of commercial products. Refining falls into three main fundamental divisions: distillation, thermal cracking and the more modern method of fluid catalytic cracking.
In the process of distillation the crude oil is pumped through the coils of a pipe still where it is heated to a suitable temperature and then delivered to a tower. The lightest product, petrol, is removed from the top of the tower, paraffin, diesel oil and boiler oil at lower levels, a base stock for lubricating oils near the bottom and heavy residual fuel or asphalt from the bottom of the tower.
Cracking consists of applying intense heat under pressure to break up heavy compounds into lighter materials which boil in the petrol range. In this case the stock is heated to a temperature approaching 1,000F and at pressures of up to 1,000 lbs psi in order to decompose the oil. The modern technique is Fluid Catalytic Cracking in which use is made of a powdered alumina catalyst which flows through the ‘cat’ cracker with the oil and is used over and over again. This process uses low pressures and gives higher yields and better results.
The specifications of the various distributors are so exacting that practically all products receive additional refining before they are shipped. Most of the products require blending with as many as six or seven base stocks going into one single quality of finished petrol.
The Maracaibo Lake Basin lies in the north-western part of the Republic of Venezuela. This vast expanse of land and water covers an area of approximately 40,000 square miles and overlies one of the largest, if not actually the largest, supply of crude oil known to man. It is bounded on the west, south and east by high mountains, whose peaks extend above the snowline and, until recently, there were only a few mule trails over the mountains to connect the Maracaibo Lake Basin with the rest of Venezuela. On account of this all communication with the outside world was carried on by sea routes. Lake Maracaibo is really an almost land-locked gulf of the Caribbean and so it is possible to transport to all parts of the Basin. Although the Lake is for the greater part of sufficient depth to permit navigation by ocean-going vessels, the entry of deep draught vessels is impossible because of the presence of numerous shifting sand banks which form an Inner and Outer Bar extending across the mouth. Lake Maracaibo is approximately 130 miles long by 60 miles broad, the shoreline is fringed with dense tropical growth beyond which are miles of flat plains extending to the base of the mountains which surround it on three sides.
Facts relating to the original discovery of oil in Lake Maracaibo are rather vague and conflicting, but it is known that a concession was granted to a company for the purpose of exploiting oil deposits in the extreme southern part of the Basin in the year 1894. The producers at that time were mainly interested in the development of an asphalt industry and the petroleum was obtained by digging shallow wells and seepage pits. No further development seems to have taken place until 1907 when the Royal Dutch Shell obtained extensive concessions and commenced exploratory work in the Basin. About 1910 the major producing companies began to take an active interest in the area but it was not until 1914 that development really began. During the next 10 years discovery followed discovery until Lake Maracaibo became practically surrounded with producing areas. Now that Venezuela had become one of the major oil producing countries of the world it was necessary to look to the outside world for marketing the ever-increasing flow of crude petroleum and the shipping of this oil to foreign markets was presenting an acute problem.
In the years 1924 an operating company in Lake Maracaibo called the British Equatorial Oil Company sold its rights to a producing company called the Lago Petroleum Corporation. At this time the Lago was merely a producing company in Lake Maracaibo and had no means of moving its products except by selling to outside companies. Now that the Lago had taken over the British company plans were made for a rapid and huge expansion of the whole organisation of producing and marketing the black gold that literally oozed into the waters of Lake Maracaibo. Many problems confronted the Company at the outset. The concession was under the waters of the Lake and thus it was necessary to erect platforms on piles to support the drilling machinery and compressor plants. Much floating equipment had to be acquired such as small tow boats, barges, floating cranes, floating pile drivers and many launches of various types for transporting personnel and materials from point to point.
In order to transport the oil out of the Lake a fleet of specially designed shallow-draught tankers capable of carrying the maximum amount of oil on a limited draught were built at Belfast by the Harland and Wolff Shipyard. Within a few years 21 excellent little vessels went into service, with twin screws and quick turning engines that made them admirably suitable for navigating the tortuous channels of the Inner and Outer Bars. At that time a base had to be found where the shallow draught Lake Tankers could discharge their cargoes and where eventually a refinery could be erected. Surveys were made on the peninsula of Paraguana, which is a part of the Venezuelan coast adjoining the entrance to the Lake, on the Dutch island of Curacao and on the neighbouring Dutch island of Aruba. Situated as they are just outside the Gulf of Venezuela and surrounded by many fathoms of water and good harbour possibilities, the islands of Curacao and Aruba had everything physically necessary for good storage and loading terminals and also a politically stable regime that made large-scale investment of foreign capital apparently safe.
The Royal Dutch Shell already had a refinery on Curacao but the officials of the Lago Petroleum Corporation decided on Aruba. Aruba is 130 miles from the entrance to Lake Maracaibo and so the haul is about 50 miles shorter than that to Curacao. In the 18th century during the heyday of the buccaneers of the Spanish Main, Aruba was often raided by the pirates who, when hard pressed, went into hiding in the caves. The island of Aruba is formed principally of several varieties of white coral, granite and pre-historic volcanic lava. The entire length of its leeward side is fringed by reefs while the windward side presents a bold rock face to the breakers which dash against it and hurl their spray many hundreds of feet over the island. Trade winds from the north-east blow throughout nine months of the year and the eastern part of the island has been swept clear of soil, leaving only bare sharp coral over most of the area. In this part only the hardy cactus plant survives and what little vegetation there is is concentrated on the western half of the island, which holds a portion of the soil blown onto it. Aloes are one of the world’s oldest sources of medicines and Aruba exports approximately 78 per cent of the world’s supply. In fact, in very few other places are aloes grown on a commercial scale. Gold was discovered in Aruba in 1824, but the ore was of poor quality and only proved a paying proposition during the days of cheap labour. With the introduction of a daily wage scale in the new oil refineries gold mining was no longer profitable and the project was abandoned. Phosphate was discovered in 1874 and was mined from 1881 until 1909, during which period 742,561 tons were exported. This phosphate contained an average of 70 per cent phosphoric acid.
The language of the natives is known as Papiamento and is a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese with a few Dutch, French and English words blended.
No mention of Aruba would be complete without a word of praise for its ideal climate – glorious year-round sunshine, even temperature and the cool, never failing breezes of the north-east trade wind make it a healthy and pleasant region. Like most tropical countries, there is a wet and a dry season, November and December being the months when the usual torrential rains of the tropics can be expected.
The rains usually come in short, heavy downpours dropping out of low clouds which are blown rapidly across the island and so there is bright sunshine immediately before and after one of these downpours. Average temperature is about 85F so bathing and picnics can be enjoyed all year round.
Oranjestad, the seat of the Governor’s residence and offices, is situated at the north-west corner of the island and was the only town in Aruba when the oil company arrived. San Nicolas Bay at the south-eastern end of the island was selected as the site for the new harbour and refinery and within a very short time it became a hive of activity as construction gangs with ship loads of material of all descriptions began the huge task of building bunk houses, wharves, storage tanks, an electric power station, hospital and the dredging and blasting of the harbour.
Until the harbour at San Nicolas was ready for operation an ocean tanker was anchored in Oranjestad harbour and used as a depot ship. The Lake Tankers transferred their cargoes directly into anchored ocean tankers but if no ocean tanker was available the cargoes were pumped into the depot ship and later transferred. In this manner the operation of transporting the oil from Lake Maracaibo to the outside world was begun. Finally, in November 1927 the harbour at San Nicolas was complete and Lake Tankers and ocean tankers were able to lie alongside modern wharves and discharge or load their cargoes by means of storage tanks ashore.
After the harbour was completed plans were immediately put into effect for the erection of a refinery which has since become one of the world’s largest and during the Second World War supplied the RAF with a large percentage of its high octane gasoline and fuelled the American fleet in its Pacific operations against Japan.
In April 1928 I sailed from Belfast as Chief Officer on one of the shallow draught tankers. These ships were evidently intended for sailing on the smooth waters of Lake Maracaibo and placid tropical seas, but to get there we had to traverse the anything-but-placid North Atlantic and the voyage was far from comfortable. It was quite common for the Chinese quartermaster to arrive on the bridge complete with his little wooden bucket to be used in the case of a sudden bout of mal de mer. In fact there was only one man on board of the 25 in the ship’s complement who was not sorely afflicted and I was definitely not that one. On arrival at Aruba all was bustle and activity and we commenced discharging our cargo of drinking water into the tanks ashore. As Aruba had practically no fresh water, all water for the Company’s domestic requirements was transported in the ballast tanks of tankers. Officers of the other Lake Tankers that had preceded us came on board to greet the new arrivals and meet those who were to be their working companions for the next two years. Our captain was transferred to another vessel to learn the job of navigating the Bars and the Lake, and another captain who had already spent some time on the service came to us. We lay alongside the wharf at Aruba for a couple of days preparing for our initial trip. A number of flexible hoses with suitable coupling pieces, clamps and thick cardboard packing were placed on board and the crew was exercised in the manner of connecting several hoses together and also to the deck pipe lines of another vessel. We also learned that there were no navigation lights on the Venezuelan coast adjacent to the Bar Head as the Venezuelans considered the Bar their natural defence against their neighbours of Colombia, whom they feared would invade their country if given the slightest chance or advantage. On account of this the sailing of a Lake Tanker convoy from Aruba was scheduled to take place between 5pm and 6pm so as to arrive off the Bar Head at daylight the next morning. The fleet was divided into three convoys so that any individual ship sailed from Aruba every third day and the personnel in one convoy only met those in another when a ship was held back for dry-docking or boiler cleaning.
The first morning I arrived off the Bar Head was like dumping a person from a small country town in the middle of Piccadilly. Ships seemed to be converging from all angles and as I took over the bridge watch at 4am I got the full advantage of it. I had instructions to call the captain at 5am and I felt very relieved when he arrived on the bridge. In all there were about 21 vessels all jockeying for position and ready to make a dash for the channel once one of them could see the entrance buoys as dawn broke. Then it was a case of single line ahead but the jostling and running neck-and-neck into the channel until the more nervous decided to slow down and allow another the right of way had to be seen to be believed and I can assure you that it was no place for weak nerves. As the water off the Outer Bar was generally too rough for a pilot to come out and board the incoming tankers the Venezuelan authorities very ungraciously granted a pilotage certificate to the captain of each vessel but when the vessel had traversed the most difficult part of the channel and had arrived in the smooth water behind the sand banks it was necessary to stop at the fort of San Carlos and take on board a pilot to Maracaibo, 25 miles farther on. Under the pilotage regulations double pilotage dues were exacted if a vessel took on board the pilot before 6am and many and heated were the arguments between captains and pilots as to the exact time of boarding. If we found that we were going to arrive at the pilot station before 6am we slowed down but if the weather was at all good the pilot boat, instead of waiting for us, came tearing along at full speed to meet us and the pilot would jump on board like a young gazelle and, hastening to the bridge, would gleefully inform the captain with a flourish of his ‘pocket Ben’ or ‘Ingersoll’ that it was exactly one minute to 6am, while the captain, in his turn would just as gleefully point to his wristwatch and prove that it was exactly one minute after 6am.
On one occasion arguments had become rather heated and the pilots, on their return to the station, had complained to the Chief Pilot. He in turn wrote a letter to the Company informing us that before leaving the station the pilots’ watches were corrected by a chronometer, Number so-and-so, made by such-and-such a company of London and that therefore the pilots’ watches were bound to be correct. He however neglected to say when the chronometer itself had last been corrected. Nevertheless, on the whole, our relations with the pilotage authorities were most cordial – a packet of cigarettes passed to him when he shook hands on boarding never failed to put him in a good humour and make us his ‘amigos’.
On arrival at Maracaibo the vessel had to anchor and then the pilot went ashore. The vessel was boarded by the sanitary, immigration and customs authorities, sometimes as many as a dozen to 15 of these gentlemen coming on board at one time. The chiefs of these government departments speedily made for the captain’s cabin while the underlings scrounged what they could from the crew and made themselves particularly obnoxious to the catering department. If the captain was jovial and had laid a good table with sufficient glasses and the liquid refreshment to fill them several times and had also carelessly left a few packets of cigarettes on the table, the formalities were completed in good time and the vessel was soon on her way to the loading terminal in the Lake. But should a captain be feeling slightly liverish and show no desire to entertain his unwelcome visitors, he would discover that it was necessary for his ship to be inspected for ‘contrabando’ or that the prime fresh meat that had been put on board the day previously from the Company’s refrigerator was totally unfit for human consumption and, under the laws of the port, would have to be destroyed and good, wholesome, and expensive Venezuelan beef would be put on board. A ‘contrabando’ inspection generally lasted anything from two to six hours, a considerable time for a ship to be delayed when oil was so urgently required at the Aruba refinery. The Company was not at all sympathetic to any captain who did not understand the Venezuelan way of life. To a Venezuelan it seemed absolutely unthinkable that he should visit a foreign ship and not take some souvenir ashore – a tin of fruit or jam or a carton of cigarettes. On the other hand I found Venezuelans very generous when ashore in their country. On one occasion I had two Venezuelan schoolboys as passengers from Maracaibo to Aruba. They were very charming boys and I told them they could go anywhere they liked on the ship and see what they wished. On my return to Aruba after my next trip, I received a parcel containing three bottles of whiskey with the compliments of the Venezuelan Consul for my kindness to his nephews on the voyage.
At Maracaibo a Customs Guard was placed on board the vessel and he remained on board until the return to Maracaibo from the loading terminal. A few of these men were regular Customs officials but the majority were picked off the streets and offered the job without even knowing what their duties were. The Second Steward came to me on one occasion and complained that he had seen the Customs Guard using the Officers’ bath as a urinal. When I spoke to the man about it he frankly told me that he had never seen a bath before and thought that was the purpose for which it was intended.
The city of Maracaibo is located on the western shore of the mouth of Lake Maracaibo and is approximately 160 miles sailing distance south-west of Aruba. It is the second largest city in the Republic, after the capital Caracas, but as far as the petroleum industry is concerned Maracaibo is the oil capital of South America. The native people of Maracaibo and the surrounding Lake Basin are predominantly of ethnic Indian origin, whereas in Caracas the ‘caballeros’ and ‘senoras’ are of European Spanish type. In the early days of exploration and geological surveys the geologists were greatly hampered in their work by the presence of the antagonistic Guajiro Indians. These Indians were very rarely seen, but a whizzing arrow shot from a blowpipe was generally the first and only intimation the geologists had of their presence.
Although wages paid in the oil industry are high by other standards, the cost of living in Venezuela is so stupendous that the foreign employees are paid a living allowance in addition to their salary. The country is rich in agriculture and minerals but everything is subordinated to petroleum, which is sold in the dollar market but the powers that be are content to sit back and lead lives of luxury on the oil royalties while the average native person is about as poor as possible.
For 27 years, from 1908 until 1935, Venezuela was ruled as a dictatorship by semi-literate Juan Vicente Gomez, known as the Tyrant of the Andes. Gomez, though mild in appearance, ran Venezuela to suit his own pocket, the country was his own private estate and he kept the bulk of the population uneducated and in a state of subservience. Those who opposed his regime were subjected to the most terrible tortures of inconceivable brutality. Thousands dragged out their lives bearing ‘grillos’ or leg irons and I personally knew one man who was permanently crippled and maimed after spending 14 years in a Gomez prison. If students rioted against the government it was quite common for one out of 10 to be hanged by meat hooks through their throats. When the death of Gomez became known in 1935, mob violence broke out and all members of the Gomez family and government supporters were killed if caught or became fugitives. Lake Tankers stood by to evacuate the British and American families if necessary but, to the credit of the humble Venezuelan, no foreign family or foreign owned property was in danger.
The distance from Maracaibo to the loading terminals was 25 or 40 miles, depending at which loading point a vessel was ordered to. Generally only one vessel went to La Salina and that was not always popular as the officers of the different ships liked to meet together and have a game of tennis or golf in the afternoon followed by the usual session in the club. Each of the three major oil companies maintained a good club at the loading terminals with bar facilities, tennis courts, swimming pools and nine-hole golf courses. Quite a number of the Americans working in the oil fields had their families living in very comfortable bungalows on the Lake shore and their hospitality was unbounded. The ships’ officers were always invited to parties that were going on and many a good evening was spent at a free barbeque, including free beer given by the club to absorb some of the excess profit. Football matches and cricket were also very popular and they always ended with a great get-together in one or other of the clubs. The Mess Halls were open day and night to provide meals for the men going on or coming off shift, and in the early days before things were properly organised one was not too particular if he went to his own Mess Hall or that of a rival company, at any rate the men on the job were not rivals but good friends. It did not take the Lake Tanker personnel long to find out that an unlimited supply of ham and eggs and coffee could be had any night at any one of the Mess Halls by simply signing the book presented by the native or Chinese steward. One glance at the book revealed that Mr Churchill, Lloyd George and many other notables had had supper in the Lagunillas Mess Hall. Of course all good things come to an end and some superintendent evidently decided to have a look at the book kept by his catering department.
The time of high tide on the Outer Bar governed the time of sailing from the loading terminal. Sometimes we had to sail at 9pm and at others we could lie alongside the wharf until daylight the following morning. Naturally, the latter was more popular as the captain had daylight to navigate his vessel between the oil rigs, which required a clear head during the hours of darkness, a condition not always attainable after a few hours at the club. The Lake Tankers were all similar in appearance and it was necessary when going ashore to memorise the position of one’s own vessel’s berth. It wasn’t unusual for personnel to board the wrong vessel, and on one occasion a captain hastening on board for the sailing time he had ordered, went on board the wrong ship, hurried directly to the bridge and rang the Engine Room telegraph to ‘stand by’. After several rings received no reply he proceeded to investigate and found he was on board a similar vessel lying astern of his own.
At the same time as the building of the refinery on Aruba, work was also taking place on the construction of very comfortable bungalows for the accommodation of the families of the Americans who would be coming to operate the refinery and also for the captains and chief engineers of the Lake fleet. These bungalows were fitted and fully furnished in the most elaborate manner for living in comfort under tropical conditions. A Company Commissary was also built and kept well supplied with all kinds of commodities from the United States at reasonable prices. Gradually a village sprang up at San Nicolas, close to the Company Concession and stores of all descriptions displayed their wares and products. Soil was brought from Venezuela on the Lake Tankers and amateur gardeners soon were able to take the bare look off the bungalows and really beautify the community.
The Venezuelan prejudice was finally overcome and lighted buoys were placed in position to mark the channels over the Bars and shortly afterwards a Lake Tanker was converted into a suction dredger and patrolled the channels day and night. The carefree, easy days for the Lake Tanker fleet were now over and it was a case of loading as fast as possible and sailing back again to Aruba; no more waiting for high water on the Bars, the tankers could now pass to and fro at all states of the tide. On arrival at Aruba it was the same rush to get the oil discharged and away again to the Lake for another cargo. The mosquito fleet, as the Lake Tankers were now called, was shuttling backwards and forwards with clockwork regularity. Now that the channels were being dredged it was possible to use greater draughts and a larger type of Lake Tanker was added to the service. These vessels had twin screws, twin rudders and carried 5,300 tons per trip and generally made 12 trips per month.
In 1939 there were 5,800 employees in the refinery and the crude oil run had reached 230,000 barrels per day. Then war came to Europe but, as the United States was neutral, there was no hostile submarine activity in the western Caribbean. British cruisers and sloops patrolled the area and, although at the beginning of hostilities in 1939, we had sailed with darkened ships, later orders were received to sail with full navigation lights. Suddenly, and without warning, the sense of security was blasted. Two loaded tankers anchored with all lights burning just of the reef at San Nicolas harbour flared up like gigantic torches at 1.30am on 16 February 1942. The submarine surfaced and shelled the refinery and residential area to the north of it without inflicting any material damage. Two other Lake Tankers were torpedoed with heavy loss of life between the Bar and Aruba. Two Royal Dutch Shell tankers and one Venezuelan Gulf Oil tanker were also torpedoed the same morning and so brought the submarine war to the Caribbean area, where it was carried on without ceasing until the end of hostilities. Over 1,000 American troops were landed with varied artillery, field telephone wires, searchlights and stock piles of shells began to appear in isolated places. Arrangements had to be speedily made to black out the refinery and initiate a protective convoy system for the Lake Tankers as the flow of aviation spirit from the Aruba refinery was now vitally important to the Allied war effort and every effort had to be made to keep it going. An airstrip was speedily laid out and American Army bombers patrolled the area by day while small patrol craft of the American Navy kept constantly watching and listening for the underwater menace that was now taking a daily toll of lives and ships and urgently required cargoes.
The colony at San Nicolas within the Company Concession had gradually become similar to any American small town. The school buildings had large airy, well lit classrooms, staffed by American teachers and conforming to the New York curriculum to high school standard.
Two clubs were built, one adjacent to the docks to cater to the needs of the tanker personnel, and a much larger club in the residential area for the American and British families living in the bungalows. Both these clubs were comfortably furnished with good libraries and the latest books, pianos, record players, billiard tables, table tennis and dance floors in addition to well-stocked bars. The larger club in the colony had a sound cinema and showed the latest American films, changed three times weekly, and had an up-to-date American soda fountain. The modern hospital with its well qualified staff of doctors, nurses and technicians compared favourably with a first-class nursing home in Britain.
Off duty the employees led a very full and active life – there were stamp clubs, form study groups, amateur theatricals, barn dancing and hog calling contests. They sailed yachts, flew light aircraft, swam, played golf, football, baseball, cricket and tennis and practised on the rifle range.
The refinery operates 24 hours every day throughout the year and is continually breaking new boundaries. Nationals of 56 different countries are to be found among the 7,000 employees who keep the plant producing to capacity.
The Lake Maracaibo fields have tremendous oil reserves which have scarcely yet been touched and the outlook for the refineries at Aruba and Curacao is excellent.
When I first joined the Lago in 1928 the maximum permitted draught for a Lake Tanker to cross the Outer Bar was 11’ 8”, within one and a half hours each side of high water. A new dredger, specially built for the job in the United States, has now deepened the channel to 18’ at low water and it is planned to cut a deep water channel to enable moderately sized sea-going tankers to pass into Lake Maracaibo. Thus it appears that the days of the shallow draught tankers of the mosquito fleet are numbered but they have served their purpose and have done a good job.
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