The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1919-07-31
WILL DRILL IF ADDITIONAL.
LEASES ARE OBTAINED

The following letter from H. W.
McQuigg, president of the American
Fuel Oil and Transportation Com
pany to H. w. Magruder, president
of the Liberal Chamber of Commerce
is self explanatory:
Los Angels, July 1lth, 1919.
Dear SIR
am informed that considerable
progress has been made toward Sc
curing the remaining Unbiased terri
ltory near Liberal in the vicinity of
our wildcat well.
With this understanding | wish to
state that should these leases be Sc
cured the Board of Directors of the
American Fuel Oil and Transporta-
ton Company of New York has de-
cided to resume drilling operations at
once, but in the event these leases
are not secured, we plan to begin the
work of abandoning this we'll
We have number Of men on our
Board who have strongly opposed
the resumption of drilling operations
on this property. AS you know, the
Traders Oil Corporation, which
started this development, has been
acquired by our Company 1t is now
well-known fact from the opera
tions done by the Traders that this
territory is very deep, if desirable at
all Some of our people feel that it
is too far out of the oil belt to be
very attractive to us. However, in
view of the fact of your great inter
est in the development Of Liberal,
and in everything for the good of
Liberal, feel that you will be very
glad to know of out final decision, as
from all accounts these additional
leases, will be delivered without de-
lay. Should they not be delivered,
out people feel that the risk in this
territory is too great, but with the
additional leases, it makes the pro-
position sufficiently attractive to
start drilling as above stated.
Respectfully yours,
AMERICAN FUEL OIL &
TRANSIT, CO.,
By H,W McQuigg
President.
AS stated in the letter some pro-
gress has been made toward getting
these leases. and with the very favor
able proposition being made by this
company, as outlined in this paper
last week, we see no reason why
every leases in the territory should
not be Forthcoming
We have talked this matter over
with the best informed oil men in
this part of the country and all agree
that nothing could be fairer than the
proposition being made by the Amer
lean Fuel Oil & Transportation Com
pany.
We have been satisfied in our own
mind and have frequently expressed
the opinion that the test west of Lib
eral would never be finished unless
the company secure more leases. The
reason is simple. AS stated by the
company, it costs a lot of money to
drill an oil we'll AS everyone knows
the chances are all against oil being
found in wildcat test. Therefore
the company takes all the risk of
dry hole, The one-eishth royalty de-
livered which accrues to the land
owner is big thing in the event of
well being brought awhile if the
test is dry hole, he is not out a cent.
Even if a well is found, the land is
still available for agricultural pur-
suits, excepting small area occu-
pied by the drilling outfit
One thing we know for certain,
and that is, that if me we're a land
owner in the vicinity of the well, we
would never see that drilling rig re-
moved without knowing what was
beneath the surface of the earth. I'm
der the plan now offered by this
company, it will be but a short time
until it could be known definitely
what is there, and we believe the best
interests Of the land owners would be
conserved by accepting the PROPOSE
ton offered them, and have develop
ment at the earliest date possible.