Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1911-11-05
STEEL OIL PIPE
PRICE REDUCED
TEN PER CENT SLASH NJ u A N s
LARGE SAVING TO THE
OPERATORS.
What The CUT means here
Casing Well in Cleveland Field Now
Costing 800 Less--Many Com
plcions In the Ilogshootcr.

On November ISL lne Sleel lIlsl
made a cut of 10 per cent in the price
of pipe used In the oil fields all over
the country. This will be welcome
news to producers in the mid-cont-
nent field as 1t means "A very consid-
cradle saving in all their operations.
This is the first reduction in the
price of pipe that has been made for
several years. About the time of the
bringing in of the Glenn Pool, the
price Of pipe began tosadvance and
the total advance was about 40 per-
cent. This high price was maintained
through the entire period of the de-
velopment of the Glenn pool, indeed
1t has been maintained up to No
vember lst
Important Cost Article.
In order that the importance of
this matter may be better understood,
few facts will be given to show how
largely pipe enters into the cost of
drilling operations. We will take the
Glenn pool for an illustration. There
were drilled in that pool altogether,
about 1900 wells. In these wells
there was generally used 40 to 100
rect of ten-inch casing. 400 to coo
feet of eight and a quarter inch
casing, and about 1,450 feet OF six
and five eights inch casing. The to-
tai cost of this was about $l,5OO
Therefore the 1900 wells of the Glenn
pool cost on an average of about ST.
500 apiece for casing alone. This
would make the total cost of casing
in that pool about $2,250,000.
Well Pipe Not All.
But operators have to buy a great
deal of pipe outside Of casing. They
have to have lead lines to carry the
oil from the wells into the tanks and
water lines and gas lines. In addi-
ton to this. the pipe line companies
have to lay lines to carry the oil
from the tanks. SO that a developed
oil field has on its surface "a perfect
network of pipes, varying in size
from two-nch to four-inch. Many op-
orators in the Glenn field would buy
as much as 100000 feet of surface
pipe at one time. This went into
money very fast.
While the cost Of pipe in the Glenn
field was very large, it is still larger
in the Cleveland field where the wells
are drilled much deeper, The aver
age cost of casing a we'll in the Cleve-
land field is $4,000. 1t can readily be
seen therefore how important the cut
just made in pipe is to operators in
this field. 1t means a saving Of $4OO
dollars on every well drilled to the
Cleveland deep sand to say nothing
Of the saving on surface pipe.
Cut Shows Exorbitance.
Just what has brought about the
cut in the price of pipe is not clear
ly understood. Perhaps it is because
Of the suit just brought by the gov
ernment against the United States
Steel corporation. In any case, the
cut is but another proof of the eX-
orbtant prices which the steel trust
has maintained for several years
During the period of four years past
when pipe has been selling at its
maximum price, there has been tre-
mendous development in opening up
oil fields not only in oklahoma, but in
Illinois, Louisiana, Texas, California
and Mexico. During that time two
pipe lines have been laid down be-
tween Oklahoma and Baton Rouge,
La, and three pipe lines between Ok
lahoma and Kansas City. 1t is un-
derstood, of course, that the three
lines here referred to mean those Of
the Prairie Oil & Gas company, which
are operated as a single system to
supply oil to the Sugar Creek refin-
cry near Kansas City, and to the Whit
ing refining In Indiana.
There have been number of other
pipe lines laid down, some from I'LL
nois to tide water on the east, some
in California and some in Mexico. The
sales of the steel trust on account of
these pipe lines and oil development
generally. have been enormous and
the profits proportionately great. No
line of business has felt more deeply
the burden of the high prices main
tanned by the steel trust that the oil
business, and every oil man will re-
joice that the tide now seems to have
turned in the other direction.