The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1920-03-11
KENNEWICK'S
OIL FAMILY
is INCREASED
Three Companies with Large
Holdings have Headquar-
ters Here Now ~
TEXAS SYNDICATE COMES
Drilling Machinery Arrives in Hanford
for Rathburn & M00re-More
Rigs are Ordered

With the opening of Offices here last
week by the Texas Oil Syndicate COM
pany, Kennewick becomes, or soon will
become, headquarters for three gas
and oil companies which have extern
sive holdings in the Benton county
field. The Texas Oil Syndicate COM
pany is reorganization of the Rat
t1esnake Hills Oil company, the'head
Offices of which were formerly in Han
ford. Offices here have been opened
in the lobby Of the Commercial Hotel
and this will be headquarters for Gen.
eral Manager D. C. Priddy and Field
Manager Charles Trammel, who re-
Gently arrived from Texas to take
charge of the, company's field ac-
tivities.
This company has opened branch Of
Hces in Tacoma, where the families of
HI. Priddy and Mr.. Trammel will live.
I'VE would have preferred to have
brought our families to Kennewick,
but it was impossible to get houses
here and we were forced to give up
our homes in Hanford that they might
be occupied by the families Of our
drillers who are to arrive from Texas
in the very near future" said Mr..
Pfiddy.
The new bungalow Office building,
which is nearing completion west Of
Hotel Kennewick will be the head
quarters Of the Walla Walla Gas, Oil
I Pipe Line company. General man
aser and Mrs. H. d. James have been
staying at Hotel Kepnewick for some
time and will occupy living rooms in
the new building as soon as it is COM
pleted.
Mr.. James predicts some real devel-
opments in the field this summer. At
ter several weeks spent in fishing for
lost tools his company's drillers are
again drilling. and are due to bring in
another gas well very soon. The log
Of the new we'll is almost identical
to that Of the big gas well and there
is every reason to believe gas will be
struck in this well at approximately
the same depth as in the other.
When in the city last week Mr..
James exhibited a small box of lamp
black which he gathered from the
burners of the gas stoves used in the
drillers' cottages. "It doesn't require
chemist to tell us there is a high
percentage of gasoline content in the
Benton county gas" said Mr.. James.
1T is a well known fact that lamp
black is product of petroleum: If
We lacked proof, this simple test is
proof enough that the gas is a wet gas
and some day will be made to yield
large quantities of high test gaso-
line"
Mr.. James is firmly convinced that
the gas will prove big thing, even
tho no oil is ever struck. eve have
the assurance of large companies that
they are ready to finance plans for
putting the gas to- commercial use just
as soon as we can prove the field"
SAID Mr.. James. ~ believe a big flow
OF gas in our new well will be suffic-
lent proof on this score. Proving the
ned, however, is not sufficient to JUS
tify the big expenditure necessary for
commercializing the gas. The gas
supply must be conserved. Not a few
promising natural gas fields have been
ruined in the mad rush for oil. The
burkburnett field in Texas is one ex-
ample. There the ownership OF the
iand was in many hands and there was
mad scramble to beat the other fel-
low down to oil. The landscape was
converted into pepperbox and the
gas was lost. To the end that this
might not happen here we have gone
quietly about the work of bringing
~nat we believe are the most promis-
ing gas lands, under one control. we
now control 10000 acres around the
gas wells which insure an orderly de-
veiopment of the field and conserva-
aon Of the gas, even tho oil is struck"
The third company, the head offices
VI which are here, is the Columbia
Alver-Puget Sound Natural Gas COM
pany. General Manager w. R. Craw-