Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-06-05

MOntana'S petroleum industry will
present some interesting figures for
the census now in progress, it is in
Dictated by a summary furnished the
Montana public service commission
by c w. Gross, supervisor of its Oil
and gas well division. Gross points
out that the first gasoline refinery
in the state was established in 1920.
following discovery of oil in the Cat
Creek field in 1919 and that there are
now % refineries scattered over the
state, 18 of which are operating.
while crude oil was discovered in
Montana in November, 1919" says Mr..
Gross, THE amount of crude produc-
ton was not sufficient to attract the
capital necessary to build refineries.
The rapid development of the Cat
Greek field in 1920 induced H. H.
Schwartz to build a small topping
plant in that locality and this was fol-
lowed shortly by another small field
plant built by H. Bat Masterson OF
the Jack Rabbit Oil company. Neither
of these plants produced much gaSo-
line and both were soon abandoned.
Discovery of oil in the Kevin-Sun-
burst field gave considerable impetus
~ Vic 1CAlliiilS ilQNNotly III 4NlClltuAAo
and the year 1921 saw the building
of three plants, two at Lewistown and
one at Billings. Other plants were
built during succeeding years and de-
velopment of the Pondera field last
year caused the location of a plant at
Conrad. One is now under construc-
ton at Laurel.
"With the exception of the AFRO
iii ond pnGninn cpranonv nlapt or
Lewistown and the Laurel Refining
company plant now under construction,
these are all topping or 'skimming'
plants, producing mostly a straight run
gasoline from Montana crude oil. The
AFRO plant operates a cracking unit
in addition to steam and fire stills and
the Laurel plant is designed primarily
as a cracking plant to operate on Cody,
Wyo., crude.
while most Montana refiners are
not entirely dependent on Montana
crude oil, most Of the oil refined
within the state is also produced in
Montana and refined in plants fairly
close to production.
"Crudes from the various fields vary
in certain characteristics but are SINH
lar in others, being a mixed base crude,
containing a small amount of sulphur
and no lubricating stock"
During 1929, commission records
show that the Montana oil fields
produced the following amounts OF
crude oil: Kevin-Sunburst field, g.
sos, 1924 barrels; Pondera, 1,007, 1927
barrels; Cat Creek, 487, 553 .88. Lake
Basin, 22,5l1.37; Elk Basin, 1924
OF this total Of 3,842, 572.53 barrels, OF
a daily average of l28,085.75 barrels
the Montana refineries used only 3d.
$50 barrels daily, most of the eXces,
being shipped out of Montana.
Despite the fact that Montana re,
fineries utilize only Is per cent of thu
states crude oil production, they fal
short Of meeting Montana's demand
for gasoline. The Oil division says s..
l77,400 gallons of gasoline were uset
in the state last year. while only 30,
908,054 gallons were made within tn
state.
Gross points out that the main prod
uct of the Montana retiner is gasoline
Kerosene is generally marketed as dis
tillate" or tractor fuel" Some ga
oil is produced and marketed for fue
and to enrich water gas. Montana re
timers, he says, have not gone in TO
road oils to any great extent in thu
past but, at this time, several gooe
grades of road oil made from Montana
crude are available.