The Cordova daily times., 1922-12-19
OIL WELL
 MAY COST co.
 LARGE SUM

That the Standard Oil Company ex- poets to expend not less than S250,- 900 in drilling it's first well in the Cold Bay field is indicated by the Bulletin, the company's trade publi- ! cation in California, which, in it's lat est issue, gave a summary of the work being done by the company in Alaska. It also asserted that it was very likely that as much as s5e0,ooo would be ex- pended before it would determine the presence, or otherwise, of oil ip pro- ductive quantities.
 I, The article follows in full:
 "Recently returned from Portage Bay, a member of the company's pro ducing department forces brings pho | tographic data bearing on the activi- ] ties of our prospecting expedition to the Alaskan Peninsula, where, as noted in the August issue of the Bull letin, the Standard Oil Company Gal | ifornia) has hopes of striking oil.
 "It was on the 20th of August that the S. s. Redono cleared the port of 1 Seattle, bound for this region, arriv- | ing at Portage Bay 10 days later Her cargo consisted of Standard Oil welI-drilIing equipment, and her pas sengers were employees of this com fpany-oil field men: Superintendent Phil B. Reed, three drillers, three | tooldressers, one cook, two tractor drivers. one radio operator and two roustabouts. Seventeen days were required to discharge cargo at Port age Bay, where it was lighterad from the ship to the beach, and tenn porary camp has been established, The equipment. landed on the beach consisted of everything necessary to drill a well 4,000 feet deep, and in cl1ded one 84 foot California oil-well rig, casting, tools-iucluding fishing tools for nearly every emergency en- countered in oil well-drilling zines, camp-buildings camp and commissary supplies, dynamos for 1 electric lighting, a wireless outfit, two 6O-horsepower tractors and three trailers. road building machinery, and ahout so tons of blanks and timberS for the construction of bridges and 1 culverts and corduroying road.
 "The landing of this cargo was a tedious process, due to the high winds prevailing in this region dur ing the summer, calm days being about one in each five or seven. The Alaska Steamship Company had charge of this work and every cour- I tesv was extended our men by Su- perintendent R. R. Pearson, who ac- companied the shipment by courtesy of the steamship companys wee president, MT. E. T. Stannard. Tfns task accomplished, road building was in order, for the property acquired bv the company where it will drill it's test well is separated from the beach camp by two ranges of noun 1 tains and miles of swamps and Il tundra lands. Seventeen and half miles of road has been built, the con- Il struction of which entailed many diff ficulties on account of the unfaVor- able nature of the country through which it passed. Late reports an nounce that it is completed and that the first rig lumber has been laid on the location where the well is to be drilled. This road was built jointly by the Standard Oil Company and the Associated Oil Company, which also is starting development work in the region
 "The Company believes that the cost of it's initial well will be at least S25O,OOO, and probably more, if any difficult formations or more than the usual amount of mechanical troub- les are encountered. Perhaps more than one well may be necessary be- fore it can be determined that oil is or is not present in commercial quan- titles. With the various c0ntingen- cies connected with the testing of virgin territory, it may be that the company will spend half million dollars in thfs, it's first wildcat ven ture in Alaska"