Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-08-22
N OIL SHORTAGE is impending in
the United States today.

the United States today.
IN the face OF curtailment and pro-ra-
ton, this may sound like the echo Of the
oil importers dismal song of the ''oil
famine" It is not. 1t comes from our
interviews with leading petroleum engin-
GERS who are now in Montana from Cali
fornia and other leading oil states where
the prducers see consumption of oil in
creasing more rapidly that are petroleum
reserves. In other words, older oil fields
are being exhausted faster than new pools
are being discovered. That means that
for the first time since the evolution Of
the anticlinal theory (and with it the
scientific methods Of finding oil poOls)
the country is using more oil than the
wildeatters can find each year.
When we realize that less than
TWO PER CENT of the wells pro-
duce FIFTY PER CENT Of our oil,
the two per cent being wells in re-
Gently discovered fields we know
that the Oyer-prOductiOn picture may
change over night.
without East Texas there would have
been no great 'over-prOduction since 1880.
Here in Montana we consider one hundred
wells q big program for year S1nce
the fall of 1880, SEVENTY SEVEN
THOUSAND WELLS have been drilled IN
East Texas field. More than 1000 wells
were drilled in East Texas last year
(1935) When We consider that the ay-
erage initial in East Texas ESQ Dbl. per
well) Is about the same as In Cut Bank
we have some idea as to the CAUSE OF
over-produetion. 1t is the result OF
race TO get the oil out OF the ground and
is something that cannot last.
Between 1880 and 1885 but one field
of major Importance was discovered in
the United States. That was Conroe
Recently Rodessa has come into the spot
light and It is today the countrys
menace" Except for intensive devel-
opment-a program of attempting to steal
the oil from the other mans ground by
drilling wells faster than the other man
-Rodessa would be no menace.
We all felt that during 1895 the oil
industry was just drifting along with
more oil than we knew what to do with.
The Independents had no incentive TO
hunt for new pools. We thought the
majors were idle, but THEY WE'RE NOT.
THE AMERICAN OIL INDUSTRY
DRILLED MORE WELLS IN 1885 THAN
IN ANY TIME SINCE 1889.
During 1885 there was produced and
consumed a total of 1000, coo, 600 bar
rels of oil Less than that amount OF
oil was added by the discovery OF new
fields.
Since 1859, about $500 oil fields have
been opened up. The greatest NUMBER
of discoveries was btween 1928 ana 1881.
This was due chiefly to the development
Of deep well technique and OF improved
geological and geophysical methods OF
locating favorable structures. II requr-
ed "A years, from 1857 to 1900, 10
produce the first billion barrels OF pet
roleum from American fields NOW We
are consuming a billion barrels year.
Science was called upon for deeper drill
ling and faster drilling.
When Ralph Arnold estimated in 1914
that the country had oil reserves of
$500, 0OO, 900 barrels Of oil, he did not
guess that it would ever be possible TO
drill $4,000 feet The estimates of re-
serves by petroleum engineers have been
laughed at as the Oil fields have pro-
duced in a decade more than Arnold
estimated as the entire known supply.
However. we doubt that the next decade
will see drillers finding and producing
oil from much greater depths than $4,000
feet We doubt that the science OF
geology and geophysics win be greatly
improved so as to find any great num-
number of hitherto unsuspected oil pools.
What happened in 1920 to 1880 cannot
be repeated.
At any rate we must face the facts:
only three states, Montana, Arkansas and
New Mexico, have been added to the list
OF productive states in more than 20
years.
The only important producing areas
that have been added in the older pro-
ducing states are the Panhandle (Texas)
and the West Texas-Southeast New Mexi-
co district. Fields which would double
the combined present production OF
Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, West
Virginia and Montana would be neg
lfgible from the national standpoint and