The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1901-06-12
WORTH OF TEXAS GUsHERS.
GeoIogist Says the Find is the
Most important Known.
From the PHILADELPHIA Record. J

From the Philadelphia Record.
Washington. D. c.. June Prof.
Robert T. Hill, of the United States
geological survey, formerly State ge-
ologist. of Texas, says with regard to
the limitation of the Beaumont oil
field:
1T is impossible at present to state
with exactness the extent of the oil
Welding bed which supplies the Beau
mont wells. and this can only be final
ly determined by drill experimental
ton. The following deductions, how
ever, are plausible: a theoretical sec
ton along a line 80 miles long from
the seacoast near Sabine Pass through
Beaumont, n. Is ". to Nacogdoches.
should first be drawn to understand
the limitation of the field. About 10
miles southeast of Nicogdoches the
Oil City wells occur at a depth Of ITO
feet. The oil-bearing stratum at this
point may be assumed to be 100 feet
above sea level. At Beaumont the
first sign of oil was reached at 500 feet
below sea level, and the first strong
sign of oil at 525 feet below sea level.
The gusher flow was reached at LOIS
feet below sea level.
Indications Of the limitation of
the field to the eastward toward
Louisiana are as follows: l. Expert
ence derived from borings for sulphur
in the vicinity of Sulphur City, Cal
casieu Parish, Louisiana, and the oc-
currence of oil springs near Lake
Charles. 2. The structural conditions
to the east which show that the Pre-
Pleistocene foundation in that part
consists of cretaceous rocks as ascer-
tained in the vicinity of Petite Anse.
Belle Isle, in the district known as
the Five Islands, where the re-
searches have been sufficient to show
that the underlying structure of coast
prairies is quite different from that
to the westward, and that borings
have been made to sufficient depth
to show that the oil-bearing strata
encountered in Texas are not met
with there. Furthermore, the oil.
bearing strata Of the Beaumont oil
fields do not occur in synclial basins
or troughs, the strata being Of the
simplest monoclinal type.
Therefore the prospector IN the
Beaumont fields must be prepared to
cast aside the previous conception
based upon the structure and age Of
the prediscoyered oil fields and to en-
counter conditions entirely dissimilar
from them. Fortunately, however,
these new conditions are not those OF
complication but simplifcation, and
the well-driller may experiment with
sefety in the Beaumont Oil field with
out fear Of structural complications
with a reasonable assurance that oil
may be found anywhere within the
region of the cost plain above the oil
impregnated sands. The oil should be
found at decreasing depths at the rate
of about seven feet per mile along
line drawn from Beaumont to Oil
City, in Southern Nacogdoches Coun-
ty. The pressure and quantity will
both likewise decrease away from
Beaumont along this line.
the only deduction possible is that
the area of profitable exploitation OF
the Beaumont oil field is confined to an
area between the San Jacinto and the
Sabine Rivers, east Of the Houston
and West Texas Railroad and south Of
Oil City, Nacogdoches County. This
area may be extended or restricted
by future exploitation.
cit is very probable that other oil
fields may be discovered in the coastal
plain between Beaumont and Tam
pico fields. Here lies vast territory,
underlain by the oil-bearing eocene
formations, which has not been exploit
ed. Throughout the coast prairie coun-
try of Texas many artesian wells have
been drilled within the past ten years
for the purpose of securing water
supply. The object for which these
wells were drilled having been obtain
ed at depth corresponding to about
800 feet in the Beaumont. we'll, they
were not driven to lower strata, where
oil would probably have been found. .
AS to the importance of the Beaumont
discovery, Prof. Hill is Of the opinion
that it is the most important, from an
economic standpoint, yet made. The
six gushers at Beaumont have an ap-
proximate yield of 10000, 600 barrels
per annum, or more than half the pro
duct of the entire oil region of Rus
sia.