IS THERE OIL IN OUR BASEMENT?

After reciting his blessing, having a hearty lunch and murmuring a gratias to thank the good Lord for all his kindness, the good abbot resolutely sets out on the campaign. It is not a simple walk that he is undertaking, it is a scientific expedition, because Father Estinès is not only the most pious of believers, he is also a true scholar. He has dedicated his life to the search for oil, and he finds it almost everywhere, because God blesses his work as he deserves.

While waiting for him to have spotted an exploitable deposit, Mr. Abbot has already discovered all the means that will allow it to be discovered. He is commonly called the “oil dowser”. But his method is of a higher order; it is taken from radioactivity data and Father Estinès' devices are inspired by his principles. The whole thing represents around a hundred kilos of luggage, when it moves. This is no small matter!

Thanks to his instruments and the indications he interprets, the scientist can not only precisely mark the place where it is necessary to dig to reach the oil, but at what depth it is found. This is how, near Brignoles, Father Estinès spotted it at 420 meters, and the survey has already exceeded 370 meters. We await with excitement the latest results of the supreme prospecting...

But, you will say, this represents big costs. So there are good people who take the invention of Father Estinès seriously? That's right. A company was formed, with a capital of one million, to provide the ecclesiastical explorer with all the means to pursue his experiments. If they reveal the existence of a serious deposit here, ten million will be immediately paid to begin exploitation. What more beautiful response to unbelievers!

For the moment, let's limit ourselves to saying that it is enough to have spoken with the priest for a quarter of an hour to share one's geological faith. According to him, he has already found oil in four regions, including Forez and the Pyrenees. At this very moment, the abbot affirms that there is oil in the heart of Provence, and he told me the other day with smiling assurance: “The whole of the South is swimming in oil!”

That may be saying a lot. Is this abbot just an enlightened person? a gentle maniac? Or should we recognize him as one of those great inventors, who rank among the benefactors of humanity?

I lack the skills to decide. We never really know these things until after the event. It is not public opinion that makes the inventor, it is success. Let the abbot “produce” tomorrow a few tons of oil extracted from our soil, and we will only have to celebrate his merit, all the greater the more his research and his demonstrations have been thwarted.

Because, curiously enough, it seems that a general ill will opposes investigations of this kind. One would be tempted to imagine that all the specialists are interested in not finding a single drop of oil in France. Another mystery! But this one is perhaps easier to clarify...

Gustave Těry