Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-05-14

TWN HE completion of a guSher well An
Kevin-Sunburst field last week
forces us to interrupt a series of
articles we had prepared in accordance
with our Special Information Bulletin
No. 473C. 1t is further proof of our
Factor No. 3" contained in the bulletin
and demands discussion at this time.
The best operators and engineers in
Northern Montana tell us that the new
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT well In Section 49,
35N-2W is a duplicate of the Ohio Baker
No. 3 well, located nearly three miles
northeast. The Baker No. 3 is one of
the most famous although not the largest
producer in the field. The fact that it
is still a good producer, after FIFTEEN
years of production, is adequate evidence
that it is a really great well. 1t has
produced some 81 ,2OO,O 900 worth of Oil
thus far and will doubtless produce much
more
1t was in March of 1928 chat the
Baker No. 3 was drilled. 1t has no oil
at the top of the Madison lime and
looked like dry hole" The crew con-
tinued drilling, to complete the tour be-
fore quitting. Suddenly the tools drop
ped as if into fissure. Oil Immediately
arose. 1t was not sensationally large
gusher It's initial was 1915 barrels per
day. Many other wells i'm the field
showed greater initial but few of them
held up as has the Baker No. 8. 1t is
apparent that the oil is not coming from
a saturated formation but FROM A
FISSURE In THE LIME.
In the folding of the earth's surface,
through mountain building, soft shales
are pliable and they bend into dOmes and
anticlines, frequently without breaking.
Not so with lines. LINES usually crack
and fracture, instead of bending. Ac-
cOrdingEy, any oil or water in lower hOri-
IONS, in or below the lime, are allowed
to migrate upward through these cracks
and assures. Occasionally oil is found
in formations above the lime, but this
is always explained by the presence of
FAULTING which has been so severe as
to crack through the shales as well as
the lime. That is true of Cat Greek and
Dry Greek where the faults extend to the
surface of the ground.
The United State Geological Survey
(COllier-812B) describes KeVin-Sunburst
dome as a NEARLY circular uplift cover
ing about 16 townships, and adds that
otis regularity and its outline suggest
that 1t may be the surface expression of a
deep-seated laccolith, but OF this there
is no other evidence" In other words,
a mountain started to come up at this
pOint-.possibly similar to one of the
peaks of the Sweetgrass Hills. Its move
ment, for some unknown reason. was
oAANSNCus ~sANSF a. httu B0SAACU AAA~AShSO
level rock strata upward 700 feet from
its normal position. The shales,
which are on the surface were warped or
folded into the shape of a dome. The
lime did not bend, like the shale, but
instead it CRACKED.
1.-THE presence of vertical assures in
the limestone suggests faulting, which
If 1t could be demonstrated, would go
far toward proving that the source of
oil is in the underlying rocks says the
U. s. G. S. As proof of the fact that
oil does not originate at the top of the
Madison lime is cited several instances
of wells which found oil BELOW THE
TOP OF the lime. Among these is the
O'NeiI-Lashbaugh No. well in Sec.
27-S5N-2W, which had flow of 5000
barrels of oil day, believed to have
been struck about so feet below the Ellis
Madison contact
Incidentally, this organization recently
purchased some royalty on the James
Miller ranch. in West Kevin-Midway area.
OF this ranch the U. S. G. S. gives the
following history: