Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-09-04

that started upward and then stopped
before reaching the surface
This Arch did not come up with the
regularity of a cone or even dome.
The highest points in the Arch is IN the
shelby gas field. Take a stiff piece of
cardboard and press it firmly over some
cone-shaped object and it will show how
the flanks of the Arch are bent into
ridges and wrinkles. So it is that there
are structural moses coming up onto
the Arch There isn't enough oil in the
world to fill dome the size of the Arch,
so it is fortunate that there are wrinkles
or moses" which are seperate high spots
into which the oil has migrated in pools.
Between these highs there may be dry
areas and water wells, since oil floats on
top of water, thereby seeking the high
est points in structure
RELATION OF WATER
The presence of water is essential to
the accumulation of large bodies of oil
i'm a structural high. Operators do not
drill a high" where 1t Is known that
there is no water pressure for they are
reasonably certain that the oil viii be
found somewhere down structure, float
ing on Top of parental water. COnversa-
Iy, il is desirable to drill a high" where
known water pressure exists In oiI-bear-
ing formations. The water table OF main
Cut Bank field is notably low, and so It
is a bumper field rather than gush-
err field. The notable exception is the
NORTH SLOPE.
Where wells have been drilled ON de-
fined noses on the north slope, fhoW-
ing wells have resulted. Other wells, off
these noses have fOund-as might be
expected-WATER.
RED COULEE NOSE
First comes the 'snOse'' known as the
BOrder-Red COuIee field. This Is not an
oil dome but merely NOSE" coming up
onto the Arch. Its production comes from
the Sunburst sand and the Cut Bank
sand. The sands were called Vanalta ana
Cosmos sands, for want of a better name,
when the field was discovered by some
Canadians, drilling ON the north side OF
the border.
The largest flowing well ever
completed In the state of Montana
was drilled on the border 'nose."
1t was a shOrtiived gusher, for 1t
flowed out of control and developed
water, as did nearly all of the flow
ing wells in the BOrder-Red COulee
field.
When Cut Bank field came in, opera
tors did not recognize the Cut Bank sand
as the same stray that was producing
in the Border field. None suspected the
relation of the two. Later, geoiogtsts got
together to determine names Tor the pro-
ducing horizons in Cut Bank, displac-
ing temporary names of geOlogists' Moui-
ton, Darling and Stewart. Then It was de-
termined that the Border field sands are
the same as the Gut Bank sends. At the
same time it was determined that the Cut
Bank sand, as il has since been known,
marked the shore line of an early Creta-
ce0us ocean, swinging northeast from the
main Cut Bank field to the Border field.
CORE DRILL THIGHS"
Biologists know that wherever a thigh"
can be found in a petroliferOus area, they
can expect to find oil. So core drills were
used to define the structural conditions
on the north slope One such high" that
was outlined was drilled by L.. b. O'Neil.
He not only struck oil but it came in A
FLOWING WE'LL. Tt was by far more