Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-03-11
OIL NEWS.
New Wells and observation-disclosures About
the Producing Wells

4
Just at present the oil market is at
| standstill and the talent is kept
| guessing which way it will go next A
short time ago it made squirt and
went up rapidly for few days, but
| just as suddenly as it started it stop
| ped and then dropped two cents There
| is every reason why the market should
! go even higher than 1t is at present
but despite this 1t is now stationary,
with the indications favoring decline
in very short time. There is not a
thing being done in any of the fields
at present for the simple reason that
the present price of the fluid does not
pay to operate. Then again the roads
are in an execrable condition, and it
costs as much for the transportation
of material into the field as the stuff
is worth.
With all work at a standstill in all
parts OF the held and the production
of the pools falling off very rapidly it
is very patent that something must
be done in a short time or there will
be demand for oil without supply.
The large companies now have con-
tracts which it will be impossible for
them to fill if the present depletion of
stocks continues as it has been in the
past
1t has been generally supposed that
the Standard Oil Company, the mono
poly Of the country. had all the oil
they needed from their production in
the interior counties of the State, but
1t has been learned on good authority
recently that none of their wells have
been holding up in production despite
the fact that desperate remedies have
been applied in a number of cases All
the old wells of this company in Wet
eel, Marion and Doddridge counties
have been shot and cleaned out, and in
some cases drilled lower to the deeper
sands, and yet Notwithstanding this
expense they have not responded as
was expected and production is still
falling off.
The indications at present are that
as soon as the roads get in better con-
ditlon there will be general resump-
ton OF business among those COM
panies which have territory in defin-
ed pools. The roads are now getting
little better and already there has
been quite lot of material sent out
by some of them. There will be little
wildcatting done by any of the COM
pdHieS ILLS spring unless l0e price OF
1t goes up much higher than it is at
present.
There is but one pool in the south
west now that is attracting any atten
ton from the outside and that is at
Whisky Run, where Barnsdall & NAL
Tory got the big gusher on the Abeicht
lease about a month ago. The well
mas been holding up at about 500 bar
rels ever since it was drilled in, and
there is every reason to believe that
good pool has been opened up. The
well on the Whaley farm to the north
west, was shot a short time ago, and
its production was increased from
about ten barrels day to eighty.
During the next few days this pool
will hold the attention of the talent
very closely. The we'll drilling on the
Barnes twelve acres is due in the sand
to-day, and there will be several other
WELLS due the early part of next week.
| While these wells are all located near
the big one first drilled in, yet they
| will show whether there is anything
| there or not. At the present time
there is about a dozen wells drilling
| out there.