Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-04
OIL LESSONS WAYS.
They Are Not Inclined to Pay Much
in the Way Of Bonus Just Now.
SOME LEASES HAVE BEEN GIVEN UP
The Opinions Conflict Why Operations Are
Not Continued.
SPECULATION A PRICE REGULATOR

Owners of land in the southwestern and
western portions OF the county are begin
ming to know considerable of the ways and
methods of the oil and gas land lessor, and
some of them do not like them over-much.
1t seems that some companies have been
picking up leases for years and drilling
wells. If they get oil they close the well
and husband the fluid. supposedly intend
ing to continue this mastery inactivity un-
til they either find price that suits better
than the present, or until it is convenient to
lay pipe lines, or they secure all the terri
tory they want cheaply. Some gas wells
are handled in the same way.
There is one commendable feature about
this plan-that of saving the oil in the
ground and preventing its deterioration
which gave the Standard so much disquiet
before the shut-in movement. An enormous
amount of wealth was lost by this deteriora-
tion, but the hard-run producer was aptonly
to see in suspension of operations the fail
ure to provide for his daily bread.
There are considerable number of wells
in this county now shut in, and dreams of
wealth once entertained by the owners of
land are indefinitely suspended, much to the
discomfort of the owners. One man near the
Beaver county line is getting very impa-
tient. A we'll was drilled on his farm. and
it was ascertained to be good one, but
it has never been pumped. and
the knowledge that the owner of the land
owns one-eighth OF the oil therein is poor
consolation to him when he isn't reason
Oh 4bo4 L., % fha
fruit of development.
OTHERS IN THE SAME FIX.
Some owners of the ground in which
there are shut-in gas wells are in the same
unenviable frame of mind. 1t is quite COM
mon for lessons to agree to pay $500 year
rent for gas wells, SO long as they continue
to pay, but the leases in many instances are
so fearfully and wonderfully drawn that the
lessor begins to taking gas just where it
suits him, and rent does not begin until the
we'll is opened and declared a payer.
1t is also alleged that sometimes the
lessor will hold that well is not payer,
and while taking the gas and marketing it
employs his spare time haggling with the
land owner who is sometimes worn out, and
induced to take much less than the
original stipulated rent, when all the time
he is haunted by the suspicion that he is
being "done up"
A well on the Schmid farm, on Montour
run, was drilled several years ago, and is
still shut in, though some people insist that
all that is wanted to prove it good payer
is to open it and give it a chance to either
gush or be pumped. 1t is said that the con-
timing apparatus was loaded down within a
few months with sand in order to keep down
ebulition.
WHERE PRODUCERS BLUNDERED.
Some lands on which big rent was being
paid and lessons bound up to begin opera
tions within short time have been sur
rendered, but an operator states that they
will be retaken if there should in the mean.
time be big wells struck in their neighbor-
hood. This man states that the producers
who were so hot to have the exchanges
killed, have realized that they have killed
themselves by taking petroleum out of the
list of speculative commodities, and that
they now see that they are in the hands
of an organization that can control
price absolutely and that it does not propose
to allow the price to run high unless it can
get the lions share of the advantage. Very
few people short the market nowadays, and
there is no leverage to put up prices which
the Standard Oil Company cannot over
come at will, whereas formerly when it be-
came a necessity to pinch the shorts it was
necessary to allow the producers share of
the profits. In former times spectators
frequently made the market, but now they
have little or nothing to do with it. The
course of operations during the past year
gives evidence that there is more or less
truth in the claim.