Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-05-14
WHY DON'T THEY DRILL DEEPER?

of these cracks There is no method, so
far as we know, whereby such cracks can
be located. IL is of course cheering
TO realize that ANY location In this field
may strike one OF these cracks and give
us a great well.
But now that we know that the Oil
found at the top of the lime is stray oil
migratory Oil-dOes it not make it
certain that there must be MORE oil
deeper down: the source pool of all this
Kevin-Sunburst production is i'm some
lower formation? This oil has worked
its way up through the lime with water
pressure from the mountains behind it.
Where 1t could get up into the shales, it
has concentrated in the Sunburst sand;
elsewhere il has come to rest when 1t
hit the imperEf0us formations of the ELLIS
Still other places have the oil in strata
at IA, 20, so and possibly at various
other foOtages below the top OF the lime.
In Turner Valley they drill from 400 to
500 feet into the Madison lime before
thew get their production. The differ
ence is that they have TO drill from $500
TO 1000 feet to get the horizons which
would be found i'm KeVin-Sunburst at
ut the TOP of the lime, as Kelvin drillers
do. there would be no West Turner
Valley oil field today.
We the royalty owners cannot tell the
drilIer what to do but we can feel pretty
sure that there Is a lot of OIL BELOW
THE TOP OF THE MADISON LIME in
Kevin-sunburst field An operator-engin-
eer once told us that the oil in this
field occurs i'm assures and vugs--using
a mining cernl-in the Madison lime
These are, for the most part, separate
and distinct. The oil from one fissure
may be exhausted and water may displace
the recovered oil, yet it will not effect
the next fissure, close or far away from
the first one. He told us that this field
will never be drilled out until EVERY
location is drilled, adding "the last well
drilled ON the last remaining location
mF'v be the greatest gusher."
We had rather forgotten that discus
sion until last week when the AronOw
well came in. We had grown convinced
that the day of big wells was past. We
rejoiced at a showing of oil measurable
In quarts per day, because it meant that
acidization would make it into a pro-
Queer. The acid opens flow channels
through the crack that allows even a
small showing to migrate, and brings in
crude from the nearest lime fissure.
The size of the well is largely depen-
dent upon the proximity to one of these
assures We had grown to believe that
all the assures had been found and ex-
hausted.
The ArOnOw well looks just as good
today as did the OhiO-Baker No. 3 on
March 20, 1928, before the pressure had
been taken off ANY fissure i'm this field.
ANY well that flows 81 barrels of oil in
eight minutes, with no sign of water,
has adequate pressure.
We now know that all it takes is
MORE DRILLING TO bring i'm more gush-
err pools. The GundersOn well is accu-
mulative evidence that will convince drill
lers of two thinugs:
4. There should be control head on
every derrick floor.
2. Deeper production awaits the man
who will drill down for it, BELOW the
top of the lime.
To us royalty investors we can feel
more reliant than ever that the humbIest
royalty in Kevin-Sunburst today may
easily have the fields greatest gusher
when the tract is Systematically drilled
out.
GeOphysics may come to aid the opera
tor in trying to spot his wells closer to
lime cracks. That is a topic for further
discussion.