The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-15
Petroleum Sands of Encourag- ing Quality Encountered
 Every 300 Feet
DRILLERS WILL 60 250O
 FEET BEFORE STOPPING
General Manager Allen in Report Ex- presses Belief That Pay Sand Will Soon Be Struck By
 the DrilIers.

An oil field, said to be very rich is be-
 Ing successfully deveioped in Fayette county by the Providence Oil and Gas
 company, officered and backed by promi-
 nent men. Prospecting was begun some
 time ago and active drilling has been
 in progress since June.
 The Providence oil and Gas company
 has an authorized capitalization of $1 1,00O,-
 OO0 divided into 100000 shares of the
 par value of $1 each. w. o. N. Scott of Washington. D. C., and Birmingham, a well-known capitalist and real estate in- vestor, is the president; J. V. Allen of Birmingham is the secretary, and Will
 liam. s. Allen is the general manager.
 The general offices of the company are on the tenth floor of the Brown Marx
 building. The company owns 500 acres of oil land in Fayette and 1900 acres in Tuscaloosa.
 The drilling rig, including the well cas- ing was purchased from the Keystone Driller Co.,, and General Manager Allen says that it has proved in every way satisfactory.
 A. J. Osborne, a practical oil well man
 of 25 years experience in Pennsylvania
 and Texas, is in charge of the drilling
 He speaks enthusiastically of the results
 thus far obtained. He gives it as his opinion that the properties of the com
 pany will yield large profits and will turn out to be of exceptional value.
 General Manager Allen in his report on development operations, dated at Fay cite, Ala, and submitted to President Scott last week, gives interesting and cheering details of the work. After set ting forth a full account of preliminary work, the report says:
 "At depth of 234 feet below the surface the first oil sand was struck, the same being very perceptibly impregnated with petroleum, but not containing enough petroleum to flow into the hole. This stratum continued for 15 feet being a rather coarse-grained sandstone with
 streaks of shale.. At depth of S73 feet
 a second oil-producing sand was struck,
 the same showing up much more satis- factorily than the first oil sand, contin- uing for 46 feet. At depth of 699 feet natural gas was struck, accompanied with
 quite a flow of salt water. This gas
 first showed up on Saturday night, July
 1T, and blazed up two or three feet above
 the derrick floor. On resuming work the following Monday morning the salt wa ter had risen 300 feet in the well, but was bailed out by the drillman in two or three hours. The following Tuesday morning the water rose to height of 75 feet in the well, but was bailed out in about 30 minutes and has never given any trouble since. At a depth of 976 feet a brown,
 chocolate-colored sand, with slivers of
 argilaceous shale, was penetrated and
 continued for 40 feet. This sand was more
 strongly impregnated with petroleum than
 the second sand and probably will yield
 in paying quantities when shot with nitro-
 glycerin. At 1036 feet a fourth oil sand
 was struck, continuing for 20 feet and
 very strongly impregnated with petro-
 leum At a depth of 1077 feet a light
 gray sandstone was struck. carrying, per-
 haps, the best grade of oil found in the
 hole, and differing from the oil in the other sands in that it was almost odor- less. Tt is my purpose at present to con- tinue down to depth of 250o feet, if nec-
 essary, to strike a pay sand without shooting the same. In other words, a natural flowing well, which every indica- ton points to as existing in this field, and which we should prove up with the hole now being drilled. It Is my inten- ton later to shoot with nitroglycerin the several sands in rotation which we have already penetrated. we have demonstrated beyond doubt that we are in an extensive old field, and 1t only remains to be opened up when 1t will pay large revenue to the con- pany. You will note that the oil sands are improving as we gain depth, each succeeding sand being better than the one above 1t. You will also note that
 these sands are from 200 to 300 feet apart, and in this respect similar to the Penn sylvania- West Virginia field. We should
 strike another sand at about 1900 to 400
 either one of which I believe will contain
 oil in paying quantities. The oil should
 rank in quality with the best Pennsyl-
 vania oil, which is the standard and
 commands the highest price paid for I
 crude oi.'
 Secretary Allen said yesterday: "Our
 property is beisg developed in thor
 oughly practical way, and will be oper-
 ated along modern and approved busi-
 ness lines. The fact that we are devel-
 oping oil wells as near by as Favette
 county, and the fact that this oil is of
 standard quality, means much for Bir-
 mingham and the Birmingham district"