Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-04-13
Many HAVE THE OIL FEVER.
The Advance in Price This Week the
Cause.
The Advance Has Stimulated the
Producers, and Much Wild Cat
ting Will Be the Result-The Mag
nitude Of the Industry-A Report
that the Independent Producers
OWil Be Forced to the Wall
Special to the Register.

Special to the Register.
Pittsburg, April 12.-Everybody has
"oil on the brain" Not even the min
ing craze which recently swept over
the Cripple Creek gold camp exceeds
that which now prevails over the oil
fields of Western Pennsylvania and
West Virginia The advance in the
price Of Lima oil has been smaller. but
the excitement has extended TO the
Ohio oil fields, and is tapping over into
Indiana.
There was never a time in the his
tory of the business when the wild
cater was more alert than now. Men
are in the field night and day looking
| for possible developments. They
seem 10 smell the oil from a new well
afar off, and derricks are springing up
in almost inaccessible places like
mushrooms. On Tuesday night the
Bridgewater Gas Company stuck an
oil we'll on one Of it's Sistersville leases.
! The next morning the adjoining prop
| erty had been leased at a round pre-
! MUM, and by night the timbers were
on the ground for three new wells,
which were Immediately under way.
Within a few hours an agent of the
Standard Oil Company was on the
premises with a proposition to buy the
Bridgewater's well and lease with a
price which represents a small for
tune.
Some idea of the activity in field op-
erations may be had when it is stated
that on the 1st inst. the number of new
wells drilling and rigs in course of con-
struction in all the fields was 1,401.
The monthly average of new opera
! tions last year was only 232, and the
total number of wells completed was
| only 3,54S for the entire year
Pittsburg is the center Of this stir,
and will profit largely by it, in fur
nishing men and material. A great
many experienced operators say that
all the available property in Western
Pennsylvania and West Virginia is
now within well defined limits. The
most that can be expected, they say, is
a reopening of old wells which were
abandoned as Improbable when prices
were below the dollar mark. The
pumping of such wells will add slight
ly to the production, but will not begin
to supply the increased demand for
consumption. The Standard is un-
Questionably the best authority on the
trade and its prospects, and it is ar
gued that the great company would not
now be loading up with old territory
at such high prices if there was even q
remote chance of new fields being de-
yeloped.
The price of oil to-day will justify
still more hazardous undertakings
than the development Of partially con-
demned territory, and there is no ques-
tion that they will be made. Whether
the present search is successful or not,
there will be an enormous amount Of
money spent in prospecting. The cost
of drilling a well ranges from 1000 in
the Warrington field to $1,000 in the
North Corning territory. The amount
of iron casing required for each well
varies from 1,500 to 5000 feet. Esti
mating the present number Of new
operations at 1900, and the average
cost of each well at $4,000, and it is
seen that not less than S6,000,000 is
now being expended in new work in all
the fields. This does not include the
additional expenditures which will be
made in cleaning out and pumping old
and abandoned wells.
The extent of the industry will be
grasped by few comparative figures.
The total production of gold in the
United States last year was S43,O0O,OOO.
The production of oil for the same
period was 4S.500,0O0 barrels, which at
to-day's cash price represents a value
of. S72. 500. 900. This quantity fell short
6 soc. 600 barrels in supplying the de-
mand. which amount was drawn from
old stocks. reducing the latter TO less
than 1000. 900 barrels on the 1st inst.
Of the total production of the year 1894,
S41 .0OO. 900 was exported. These facts
and figures are the basis for the present
unprecedented rise in the market.
Does the business pay? Ask the
Standard. Within the past few weeks
il is estimated to have purchased So
coo 600 worth of territory from indi-
vidual producers. The moet import
ant of these purchases ere the Kama
wha Oil COmpaDy's property IN the
Sistersville field, for s650.000, and the
SS wells of the Wheeling Gas Company,
located in the Mcdonald field, which 1t
has practically closed, for S55O,O00. Old
oil men. following the lead Of the