Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1937-10-16

to the dull-brained school of drillers who
regarded natural gas as the enemy of the
oil producer. Thus for months this giant
torch was forced to burn up hundreds
of millions of cubic feet of gas as pun
ishment" to Mother Nature for having
substituted a snarling, dangerous gas wen
for profitable oil we'll How much would
Kevin-Sunburst operators give today to
have that same amount of gas restored
to the formations to help flow the oil?
All that is history, and with the ex-
pensive college educations" of our ear
ly-day operators all paid for, we find
a chance to start over in the same
field but IA miles away from the great
flambeau referred to. It looks to us like
a greater opportunity than we enjoyed in
the balmy days of so-called pioneer op-
portunity." Back in the days of the flam-
ing gasser, when the best geologist could
not guess within $4,000 acres of the true
size OF the producing area, we paid
THREE TIMES as much for royalty as
we have paid for our royalty in this
high gravity pool where we expect high
er prices for cruGe and higher produc-
ton efficiency.
To the investor In royalties, this mat
ter OF production efficiency is important
The man who buys one per cent royalty
on an 80-acre tract, as an example, be-
comes the OWNER of one barrel out of
every 100 barrels contained in that tract.
He gets one barrel out of every 100 bar
rels brought to the surface of the ground.
Statistics complied by the State OF Mon
tana show that in the developed area
OF Kevin-Sunburst Counting dry holes
as well as producers) the average acre
OF ground has produced $4,763 worth of
OIL. To the royalty owner, with % roy
atty this means S47.63 worth of oil from
each average acre. To the owner of 80
acres, this means recovery of S381O4O
mo an1F -
a return of $500 from an investment of
$50. If he paid 50 per cent per acre, he
has return of 900 from an invest
ment of $50. If he paid So per cent per
acre, he has a return of S1,266 from an
investment of $50 from the AVERAGE
acre.
When we look back at the terrible
practices: improperly drilled wells, badly
completed and poorly produced slip-shod
plugging then we can see in the future
ment of some wells with NO semblance of
plugg1n, then we can see in the future
glowing possibilities. Today we have
careful supervision of all such operations
as casing, plugging and abandonment We
nave acidfzation as the method of bring
ing wells into full production and in
that production through re-
acldization. We see methods of producing
with back pressure to keep out water
invasion and to increase the ultimate
Yield. We feel that the royalty owner is
going to get more oil out of each acre
n the future than he has in the past.
Experts say that only HALF of the oil
n given acre of ground is recoverable.
1t best So we know that each improve
nent in production science definitely has
AVAILABLE additional oil 10 recover.
So we are particularly triumphant ov-
II the west extension OF the high gravity
'ool. It's limits are not defined. We know
hat this high gravity oil is present at
he Madison contact in wells drilled
WORTH of the Enneberg-as far north
s in Canada. It has possibilities which
annot be guessed at this time.
1t truly offers a new deal" in invest
nent opportunities for operators as well
s royalty investors.