The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-03-09

vania, beginning his work thirty years
ago and being the first man to make
use of natural gas as commercial COM
modify. Mr.. Mercer told members of
the Hawes party that he had never seen
the equal of the Caddo field and thought
it would be the longest lived Mr..
Mercer said:
In other natural gas fields OF the
world the discovery of an oil or gas
bearing sand of from twelve to fifteen
feet has been thought to be extraordi-
nary. In the Caddo field there have been
discovered four distinct oil-bearing and
gas producing strata, the first one OF
which has an average depth of forty
eight feet Thus by long odds from a
standpoint of oil sands the Caddo field
is the largest oil and natural gas body
in the world The first oil sand is
struck at about 842 feet in depth, and is
the sand which is the producer of the
wells at Vivian, where the Busch-Evcr
EFT holdings are to be found, Besides
these the other sands are struck at
depth of about 1910 feet, 164o feet and
2I2o feet, and seem to be as good if not
better than the first sand. So it can be
seen at once the supply from which
New Orleans is to get her gas is prac-
tically illimitable Making conserva
tive estimate, | think that thirty years
would be the least period of the life of
the two producing wells shown today.
ENOUGH FOR SIX CITIES LIKE
NEW ORLEANS.
There is already enough natural gas
developed in the Busch-Everett tracts
in the three wells now completed to fur
nish six cities the size of New Orleans
was gas for thirty and perhaps forty
years This is what is actually in sight
without a particle of development We
have three wells which have an average
capacity of 100000 cubic feet per day,
and we are drilling five more We will
continue to drill III until we have at
least fifty in addition to these within
the next six months. For New Orleans
there will be natural gas reserve Of
at least 100000 feet. so that if at
any time anything should happen to any
of the wells or pipe lines connected with
them others could be Immediately sub
stituted Then it is usually the policy i'll
as-producing territories to allow wells
to rest. for like human beings gas wells
iare better if not used continuously.
They should be rested and when they
are turned loose again the pressure will
be stronger and the supply better.
Il was the originator of the Busch
Everett syndicate. I was attracted to
this locality by Shreveport residents
who had holdings they wanted to de-
velop At first ! was skeptical, but had
not made many Investigations of the
claims made before l realized that i'll
Caddo parish was the best field extant
l then placed the proposition before the
Busch-Everett people and the syndicate
was organized At this time we have
under lease and are in actual possession
of nearly two hundred thousand acres
of proven oil and natural gas lands
This is unquestionably the largest gasor
gas area in the world and surpasses by
far anything heretofore developed.
There is practically no limit to the life
of the wells, for, as l said, the first
stratum only as been punctured, and it
will take years to exhaust it. The other
three oil sands are untouched. except
to ascertain that they exist and form
an almost inexllaustible natural gas
basin which may extend to length of
| fifty miles and cover several parishes
There can be no question as to the
amount of pressure. 1t has been amply
demonstrated that at 800 feet it is 465
pounds to the square inch. at the 1900
foot level it is 1000 pounds, and at the
22oo- foot depth 1880 pounds.