The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-03-27
OHIO-BAKER WELL
MARVEL OF STATE
HAS PRODUCED 16O,OOO BARRELS
OF OIL IN THE PAST
165 DAYS
Or An Average of Nearly 1000 Bar
rels Per Day; Geologist Gerlough
Looks for Production in Lower
Sands.

Oil wells in the best fields in h
Midi Continent oil fields produce an
average, at most, of 10000 barrels
per acre. That is, if the well drains
eight acres, it will yield in its life
time, at most, 100000 barrels. The
average Of 10000 is high, accord
ing to well informed operators.
This includes the sensational gush-
ers of Arkansas and Texas fame.
Here in Northern Montana is a
well hat produced in eight months
100000 barrels of oil, and it was
still going strong at the time of
the field shutdown ON October 20,
1928. This well was completed on
February II, 1928, and between
that time and October 20 yielded
100000 barrels of oil.
Devoid of the sensational rush
and roar of the southland, this
well is one of the marvel wells of
the nation but the facts are not
generally known.
The Ohio Oil company's Baker
No. 3 well is the marvel of Mon
tana, according t o Gene GerIough,
geologist for the Potlatch Oil COM
pany, which holds a half interest
in the Baker lease. This well has
produced more oil in 165 days than
it should have produced in its N
tire lifetime, yer it a well regu-
lated, ordinary sort of an oil well.
The Baker No. 8 has produced
100000 barrels of oil in 1855 days,
an average of nearly 1000 barrels
a day. The spacing of wells in this
lea of Kevin-Sunburst field is one
to every eight acres. The exact
thickness of the oil formation is var
liable. A little water was struck in
Baker we'll No. 5, a short distance
away, after drilling % feet of sand.
Most of the wells are drilled only six
or eight feet in, but one of them,
the notwithstanding No. /, off
setting the Baker No. 8 on the south,
reported drilling clear through the
sand a distance of 35 feet. Assum-
ing then that the thickness of the
sand is 35 feet, which would be a
maximum and not an average figure,
an area eight acres in extent would
contain 280 acre-feet of sand.
Now the production of recover
able oil throughout all the fields of
the United States is found by statis-
tics over a period of years to vary
from 200 to 400 barrels per acre foot,
according to the porosity of the sand.
Kevin-Sunburst sand is not excep-
tionally porous, but again taking the
maximum figure of 400 barrels null
tiplied by the number of acre feet
or $50, gives the result $4,000 bar
rels, which would be an excellent re-
covery for the life of the we'll. How
ever, as stated above, this well has
produced 100000 barrels in a little
over five months time and was still
flowing at 500 barrels a day when
shut in last fall.
'It is obvious" says Mr.. Gerlough,
"that there are only two logical con-
illusions as to existing conditions:
large crevices or cavities in
the lime have formed natural reser-
voirs in which an unusual amount of
oil has been accumulated, or else the
sand is being fed at a very rapid
rate from lower formations"
Mr.. Gerlough is of the belief that
deeper sands will yield greater pro-
duction than present sands. He be-
lieves with numerous other geolo-
gists that the oil in this field is COM
ing through cracks in the lime from
sands below: possibly the Devonian.
He says:
To date, no one can say definitely
and with absolute certainty whether
the oil of the Ellis is indigenous, that
Is, a product of the Ellis formation
itself, or whether it is migratory and
has it's source at some lower horizon.
For the most part, it seems fair to
assume that it has been distilled from
he Ellis shales and has gathered :
the Madison contact for the
reason that in the absence of
rue sands, the ragged break between ,
he formations along with the thin !
,ed of rotten limestone here known {
IS the Ellis sand offered the only 5
valuable place for its accumulation. !
On the other hand, freakish de- '
.elopments at some of the wells have :
resented grounds for belief that the
il is coming from below. Usually :