Some occurrences of natural mineral oil in the Scottish Shale Fields

Abstract

Occurrences of natural mineral oil within the district underlain by the oil shale group of the Calciferous Sandstone Series have been known since very early times, examples of these being the Balm Well of St Catherine's, and the traces of oil which appear at St Bernard's Well. Within recent times other occurrences at Broxburn have been noted by Mr D. R. Steuart in the Survey Memoir, and previously in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry , and the purpose of this paper is to put on record, while the data are available, information with regard to others which have lately appeared, and, at the same time, to endeavour to draw some conclusion as to their probable origin. 1. Dunnet Mine, Broxburn. —The occurrence of oil here, in cavities in a sill, is described in the 1912 edition of the Survey Memoir on “ The Oil Shales of the Lothians,” and the data there given regarding it are correct. They require only the addition that the thin shale, 6 feet above the intrusion (which is of unknown thickness), is not necessarily the sole source of the oil, as the intervening strata, consisting of blaes differing only in degree from the regular oil shale itself, are, in the bulk, quite capable of yielding an appreciable quantity of oil under the influence of heat. For convenience I repeat here the Broxburn analysis of 1911, and also for comparison the results reported by the U.S. Bureau of Mines from their