The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1915-08-14
LOUISIANA OIL
OUTPUT GROWS
PRODUCTION IN 1914 EXCEEDS
THAT OF 1913 OVER IL
PER CENT

lana in 1914, which amounted to
14,309.435 barrels, exceeds the out
put in 1913 by 1,S1O,607 barrels, or
over IA per cent and established a
new record for oil production in the
state. according to a statement by
j. ID. Northrop just made public by
the United States geological survey.
productive districts in the north
western portion of the state, which
furnished IL, S0S,469 barrels, against
2,500,966 barrels from the coastal
pools, the former quantity represent
ing an increase of more than 20 per
northern fields and the latter Q%uanti-
ty a decline of 8 per cent from the
1913 record of the southern pools.
The average price per barrel for
the entire Louisiana production de-
clined from SO cents in 1913 to 80
cents in 1914, the average for the
northwestern Louisiana product from
81 to 95 cents a barrel and the
heavier coastal product from 80 cents
to CT cents a barrel. This moderate
decline in the yearly average price is
due to the steady demand for the
lighter grades of oil from the north
western Louisiana fields for refining
and to the fact that much of the
heavier coastal product was market
ed on contracts covering long periods
entered into before the market de-
clines set in.
Despite lower prices the total value
of the state s oil production in 1914
was more than half a million dollars
in excess of the value of the produc-
ton in 1913. The value of the 1913
output was 12,255,9 31; that of the
1914 output was $12,SS6,S97. OF
the latter sum $11,206, 696 is credit
ed to the fields of northwestern
Louisiana and 81 ,6S0,211 to the
coastal division.
Oil and gas in northwestern Louis
lana are derived from fairly well de-
fined though variable of poorly
consolidated sand and porous chalk
rock occurring in 1900 feet or more
of strata belonging to the Cretaceous
system. In the southern Louisiana
pools the product is obtained from
layers of sand and porous limestone
of Cretaceous, Tertiary and even
Quaternary age occurring in asso-
citation with crystalline limestone,
gypsum, sulphur and rock salt in low
structural dOmes or arches in the
strain Of generally very slight areal
extent.
During the year 1914 a total of
566 wells were drilled in Louisiana,
of which 374, orr &C per cent, yield
ed oil; SO, or about l per cent, yield
ed gas only; and 1870, or 33 per cent,
were barren.
In northwestern Louisiana a total
of 445 wells were completed during
the year. Field work was particu-
larly active during the spring and
early summer, resulting in the de-
velopment of an important pool in
De Soto Parish in consequence of dis
coveries made in 1913 and in the
opening of a new pool six miles to
the northeast, near Abingdon.
Activity in the productive pools of
coastal Louisiana resulted in the
completion of 121 wells, of which IL
yielded oil. The total initial pro-
duction credited to the coastal fields
during the year amounted to 82.914
barrels, representing an average out
put of about 1852 barrels per well
for the first day of productive life.
Further developments in the coastal
fields of Louisiana in 1914 included
the rise of Edgerly, in Calcasieu
Parish, which developed from a wild
cat discovery made in June, 1913,
into a steady and reliable factor in
gulf coast production in 1914.
From less than 5000 barrels in Jan
uary, 1913, the output of the pool
inreased to more than 10000 bar
rels in October, 1914, and the yield
was much more than 60, 900 barrels
In December.