Arizona republican., 1915-04-22
WHAT'S DOING
 IN 0|L FIELD
Statement by Colonel Elem ing as to the Progress of the Work in the Roose- welt Dam District-Pros- poets Bright

Ever since two weeks ago when it was reported that the Tonto Basin Oil | company had struck small oil reser- voir the greatest interest has been taken in the operations of the company
 near the Roosevelt dam and since then inquiries have come from many direc- tions as to the progress of the work The following statement has been made by Col. Fleming. the head of the com pany and the director of operations, to
 the Arizona Record:
 A statement of present conditions at
 the oil well of the Tonto Basin Oil
 company by Col. James A. Fleming,
 president of the company made yes
 terday is as follows:
 "A ground tank to catch any sudden blowout of oil has been excavated and completed. What is called an oil saver
 (the first ever shipped into Arizona) has been ordered. This is a well known mechanical appliance attached to top of well or top of drive pipe, which it completely caps, with a hollow outside packed plunger that slides up and down with the drilling cable packed in side of plunger so that drilled with tools in a hole can be operated with well completely and tightly capped at the same time. It is confined in the well in case a heavy flow of oil or gas is suddenly struck. This is an addi- tional safety to the ground tank
 We drove the SA inch drive pipe about 1000 feet to the last F inch that could drive it without danger of teles- coping it. Then we drilled inside of the pipe below about fifteen feet. of which the first ten feet was green col ored shale which dissolved in water to a green mud and caved or slid into the well. However, we managed to tenn porarily reach down through the cav ing material and strike a nice, fine pebble sand rock, drilling into it about five feet On account of the caving shale in the ten feet above, but could go no further with safety.
 This shale or green mud, when brought to the top in the bailer gave out very foul odor, not unlike the de- cayed fish which is a very common occurrence found in successful oil wells above the main deposit of oil It is sometimes called secondary decom- position of marine life to petroleum Gas seemed to come quite freely from this shale With a scum of beautiful Rainbow colored petroleum floating on top in stump as the bailer was emptied Of this I am positive, the two men (drillers) saw it with me.
 We were unfortunate not to be able to drive the SK inch pipe just ten or twelve feet more as the last five feet drilled seemed to be through all this cavinS material. There was nothing to Go but to insert another string of cas- ing or drive ripe from the top down to shut out this ten feet of caving space. We have secured HOO feet of GA drive pipe which will likely be on tEe ground not later than Tuesday next and will start drilling in good shape again by Thursday next.
 This makes about thirty tons of drive pipe we have driven in the well | from the first, covering the different l sizes. We should have nice clean drilling from now on into and through | the different slabs of hard formation. No rotary machine drill could have | gone down forty feet from the top in | our we'll and I am sure no rotary would | work in the hard formation ahead of us | now while our heavy standard pattern | rig is at home in hard rock.
 As to the showing to a good pro- ducing oil well. in comparison with | many I have owned and drilled by l for others. I have never seen 1 anything like the flattering conditions | to strike oil I am verified in this by ! MT. Hastings. one of our drillers and a stockholder in our com pany and who has been in the business for forty Years. We are banking on the Tonto Basin Oil company all our