Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-03-23

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price for crude oil on the one side,
and fair and just remuneration for a
valuable product on the other.
During period of what they con
slider an unjust depression in prices,
producers and royalty owners have
developed a most determined, and
to a great extent, united stand In
holding on their product, which
they know by bitter experience and
great financial loss cannot De pro-
duced at the prices current and ar
bitrarily fixed.
There was time when the oil
producers were the most ignorant
class of producers to be found, so
far as conditions, which should
govern the price for their product
was concerned.
Now that it all changed. There
is no better posted class Of men con-
Quoting any line of business today
than those engaged in producing
oil, and it is largely through the
medium of their independent pipe
line, refining, and marketing COM
panies, that they have become edu.
Gated to the conditions which govern
the prices of the markets OF the
world for oil and all its products.
They are no longer rounded up like
a drove OF cattle being driven to the
slaughter, but are able to learn true
conditions, and then think for
themselves without being depend
ent upon every wild rumor put in
circulation. Two years OF more OF
active drilling operations have in
creased the gross stocks OF Penn
sylvania something over 1000, 900
barrels, and this increase in crude
has been made at the sacrifice OF re-
fined oil stocks, both in foreign and
domestic markets, and through the
exhaustion and condemnation of
thousands of acres OF producing
and prospective producing ter
ritory. Thousands of old wells have
been for the last time resuscltated
and exhausted. The lower south
western territory of West Virginia
has been a disappointment to many
OF the larger producing companies,
and the discovery has been made
that the Big Injun" sand rock after
extending as oil bearing into the
interior counties Of the state, is
found to contain too much lime to
warrant a uniform or prolific pro-
ducing formation, and while it is
possible and probable that pools
will continue to be discovered
through the state of West Virginia,
it is generally believed that they
will be found in the more shallow
formations, and will prove neither
long-lived nor extensive in area
The great inter-connected "Tren-
ton Rock" extending over vast
areas Of the states Of Ohio and Iudi-
ana, and producing what IS known
10 the trade as Lima oil. has been
so thoroughly punctured with oil
and gas wells that the productive
pre- ssure OF that formation has been
exhausted, q fact which IS demon
strated BY the steady decline in pro-
ductiou. which. Notwithstanding
the active drilling operations prose
cuted during the past two or three
years, IS now about 20 Per cent less
than the highest figures The great
Trenton Rock" has lost It's prolific
productive qualities, and It's Life IS
on the wane-
Another tact which seems 10 have
been overlooked II figuring the to
taI stocks OF Lima crude and their
relative value, IS that the 70, 600,
900 barrels or more OF this product,
shown in the published pipe line
reports, are the refined or uzuufsc
tured equivalent OF but about TO-,
100000 barrels OF Pennsylvania
crude, two barrels Of Lima being
required for every one OF Peunsyl-
vauia 10 manufacture z barrel OF re-
fined OF, and even then the Lima
refined product IS inferior 10 that q
the Pennsylvania product, and can
never take the place OF the latter IN
the better markets TIE increasing
demand for residuuu o. Lima oil /
sor fuel purposes adds to
thar product : value which nets
handsome profit TO the uanufactur-
=. but even AZ current crude prices
the Pennsylvania crude product Is
in greater demand than Is Lima.