El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-08-06
R|G IS NOW
UNLOADING
IN TOYAH
Citizens Enjoin j. E. Brown
From Sinking Well on the
Land He Had Leased.
CLAIM HIS LEASES
HAVE ALL EXPIRED
State Causes Many Insecure
Titles and Leases by Land
Office Action.

TOyah. Texas, Aug. preparations
are under way to begin sinking another
! well in the Toyah field A well rig and
casing is being unloaded at the station,
from Midland and it is reported or good
authority that it is to be moved to
section 16. block 20. six miles south Of
the Texas company's wells. This sec
ton has just been taken over by T. w.
owens Some say he is taking it over
for the Texas company, but company
Officials deny this The well rig be-
longs to White & Suttlemeyer. of Toyah.
VINO traded TOyah land for it. They
have had il for sale. Whether it has
been sold or whether they are going
to use it 10 sink the well on a profit
sharing plan, is not known
J. E. Brown recently started a well
four miles from the Texas company'S
well. but the owners Of the land from
whom he had taken his leases, secured
an Injunction and the work is at
standstiL- He had erected small rig
and was boring for water, preliminary
20 starting the work on the oil we'll He
said he had ordered a standard rig for
the work, but cancelled il when the in
junction was secured. The owners OF
the land claim that his lease has ex-
the land is more valuable and do not
care to stand by their original contract.
The courts will have 20 decide
Many of the people were very anxious
To see the well put down, for If 1t had
produced OIL it would have extended
the area OF the proved field a consider
able extent aEd now they are waiting
anxiousIy for the developments in con-
nection with the report that the rig
now being unicaded from three cars N
the yards here is going to be sent out
to section 20.
The Texas Company Interested.
One thing that makes It appear that
the Texas company has some connection
with this drill. is Q question one Of the
men connected with the Texas COM
pany's operations out in the field. asked
of visitor from Toyah this week He
wanted to know If our other rig that
is going out to section 20 is being I'M
loaded" The man of whom the ques-
ton was asked, at once come TO the con-
clusion that the Texas company had
something TO do with the drilling prep
arations under way. 1t is known that
the Texas company does not own ths
rig, but some think the Texas company
is going TO operate II or that il is &C
least interested with and helping Mr..
Owens.
The fact that the Texas company has
saving TO that concern in further work
on the fields, The company has been
using about IL barrels of oil a day.
1t is stated, and this has cost about IS
a barrel delivered TO the field With oil
or gas enough in the field TO operate the
machinery, this viii be a saving Of s72
a day
An oil Inspector Named.
W J. Moran, of Midland, has been ap-
pointed supervisor OF the Toyah lteI9
by Judge S. ]. Isaacs- It is with view
of protecting the field that sucn an Of
fetal is named The Texas legislature
created such an office several years ago
after several good wells had been ruined
in a south Texas field by careless drill
ing The driners failed to properly case
their wells and in several instances
salt water rose in the pipes penetrating
the oil strata and rushed into the pro-
ducing wells in the field. Mr. Moran
makes frequent inspection trips TO
Toyah in connection with the oil oper-
ations near there.
How Texas Killed a Field.
The action OF the state in refusing to
fix a price on its lands in the region
Is looked upon by many as likely TO re-
tard the development of the field They
cite an instance at Matagorda where
such action stopped development work
entirely. One well was sunk that proved
commissioner at once raised the~-prsespS
of land near by to $1,000 an acre and the
operators retired from the field and
have stayed out; the Matagorda field IS
still undeveloped- This, some of the oil
men now here. declare. may happen in
the Toyah field, but as vet nobody has
although titles and leases
are in many Instances very insecure.
Many Leases Shaky.
In some cases individuals have filed
upon land under the state land law and
the state has refused to accept their
filings, holding the land off the market,
until a price can be fixed after the ex-
tent Of the oil field is determined Some
OF these filings have been leased. tenta-
lively. Unless the land office can be
forced to sell the land or the legislature
passes some measure OF relief, the
leases are no good The state has also
put two classifications on some OF the
land-one for farming or grazing pur-
poses, for which a price has been filed.
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