"Miracle of the Sahara"

A gang of wildcatters toiling after oil in the broiling Sahara sun found themselves regarded last week as France's best hope of the future. Their latest dramatic find, tapped and capped at Hassi Messaoud, in the southeastern quarter of war-torn Algeria, skyrocketed shares of the Compagnie Franc,aise des Petroles from 34,000 francs last year to 61,000 francs two weeks ago. From Hassi Messaoud and neighboring Algerian fields recently opened, there was now the promise of an assured yield of 60 million bbl. of oil a year. (Controlled 1956 production by U.S. wells: 2.6 billion bbl.) Frenchmen sitting in Cafes du Commerce all over France, hoping that this wealth might cure France's chronic foreign-trade deficit and boost capital investment in North Africa, called it the "Miracle of the Sahara."

None was more aware of this than the derrick monkeys, roughnecks, rock hounds and pebble puppies sweating in the 130DEG heat at Hassi Messaoud. Not for pay alone, which averages $400 a month, but from a patriotic spirit of excitement, the 83 Frenchmen (average age, 25) faced the needling, bone-dry winds and the oven-hot, reddish-yellow sand of the vast desert. Working peacefully shoulder to shoulder with them were 134 Algerian Berbers.

Blue Bell Promises. The camp is a group of 36 prefabricated cabins and a dozen large green tents built inside a barricade of dry reeds. Their sole amenity: a withered palm tree transplanted from an oasis 60 miles away. Only a few of the cabins are air-conditioned--and they are reserved for those men who have the hardest work, be they French or Moslem. One of the huts is a bar where the men guzzle fruit juices, mineral water and beer to compensate for sweat (about 2 1/2 gal. per man per day) lost at work. Elaborate meals worthy of a two-star Burgundy restaurant are spread before them. "If they eat only a third of this," says the anxious chef, "they'll get enough calories."

Three huge derricks have gone up on a 17-square-mile triangle at Hassi Messaoud, and high-grade oil has been penetrated in a 450-ft.-thick layer at 12,500 ft. Estimated capacity of the field: 300 million tons (15 times France's yearly petrol consumption). It is planned to have 20 wells operating by the end of 1958. The excitement of bringing in the big "bear cats" does not disturb the calm of the bespectacled chief engineer, Christian Redron, who wears nothing but khaki shorts and sandals on a skinny frame burned to leather by the sun. But Redron's eye lights up when he speaks of what it means to his country: "Just wait till we get the first oil to France. To help us celebrate, I'll get the Paris office to send us the Blue Bell girls from the Lido."

Mountaintop Threats. The bare-bosomed Blue Bell girls are safe from the sunburn of the Sahara this year: getting the oil from Hassi Messaoud through the rebel country to the Mediterranean seaboard is practically impossible. In the desert, where no man can hide from the hovering helicopter, there is no trouble from the rebel fellagha, but the wild Atlas Mountains, which bar all routes northward from the oilfield, shelter some of the toughest Moslem rebel gangs. On the final 150-mile stretch of the railroad from Oran there have been continuous attacks by rebels for a year. In one night the line was cut by explosions in 45 places: it must be de-mined every morning before a train can leave. Fortnight ago rebels burned a power station at Laghouat, a vital point on an oilfield road.

Not only the oil at Hassi Messaoud is stalled, but that of the recently discovered rich Hassi R'Mel field (estimated reserves 700 million bbl.), only 280 miles from Algiers, and the 20 boreholes in the Edjele field (capacity 700 million bbl.), where the oil is only 1,350 ft. underground. The same applies to the huge natural-gas reservoir at Djebel Berga (2,000,000 cu. ft. a day) and vast storehouses of industrial metals in other areas of the Sahara (TIME, July 1). Plans for railroads and pipelines tapping these resources and bringing them to the sea have been drawn up, but they wait a settlement of the Algerian political problem.

Etienne Hirsch, head of the French government's modernization program, recently proposed that the Sahara oil be sold on the Mediterranean coast for francs and the profits used for development projects in North Africa. Coupled with French and foreign investment in the bursting new oilfields, the flow of new capital into North Africa would ensure rapid industrialization, dispose of many of the troubles now besetting the impoverished Moslem population. So the Sahara riches at once became a reason why some Frenchmen want to hang onto Algeria at all costs, and others want to reach a compromise with the Arabs. Either way, without peace in Algeria, the Miracle of the Sahara could easily become a mirage.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.