Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-04-16

But for a time he thinks he is as
well off as our friend who thinks in
terms of the oil in his 85OO-fOot deep
pool. The fact is that had our friend
continued to put his money into north
Montana oil investments he would have
been enjoying an income today. The
people who intelligently invested their
money in Cut Bank have made money.
We believe that those who put their
money into West Kevin-Midway area are
going to make as much and perhaps
more Which brings us back to the man
who went away and left the diamond
field in his own back pasture.
There is a sign above the board in a
certain brokerage office in New York:
CHE WHO LOOKS BACK IN THIS
GAME WILL DIE OF REAdORSE.''
We think the same is true of the
Montana oil industry. The Montana oil
industry has made wonderful progress
but 1t has not ARRIVED. The industry
has not taken a full stride since it's i'm
ception. It lacks the factors which have
made great oil states. 1t lacks, first of
all, deep drilling. Deep drilling comes
with rotary tools There never has been
a string of rotary tools in the vast Kelvin
Sunburst field. There are some rotary
tools in Cut Bank but their use has
been limited to testing the Cut Bank
sand The day is coming when rotary
tools will start penetrating the lower
formations below the big lime, which
horizons have made great oil states.
Our visitor friend was Cooking back
He now knows that he could have bought
royalties and he would today have some
thing to show for his investment. 1t
would have been HIS OWN determine
ton whether he should keep or sell his
properties. If they had not been devel-
oped, he would at least still OWN them.
ANY oil that ever existed under them
would still be present.
Checking over the properties in which
he once had an interest through stock
investment, he found that many of them
which had been considered worthless,
before the days of acidization, are now
some Of the most valuable in the field.
II could have bought royalties on that
tract for a few dollars" he said of
several farms he pointed out on the map
'If l had only been dumb enough to
buy them l would today have had
fortune"
We we're looking at the West Kelvin
area and the map showed the old Miller
we'll, first well drilled in the Kelvin area
many years before the completion of the
Campbell discovery well. The Miller
wen was drilled. Doubtless on a random
location There was no geology to guide
the drillers in those days.
YET THE MILLER WE'LL HAD OIL.
Surely. it was not a commercial amount
of OIL but in this day and age SHOW
ING of oil is all the driller looks for.
If the oil is coming from the lime, then
hydrocloric acid is applied. Frequently
a well which has a showing of few
quarts of oil becomes a hundred barrel
well. after acidization Little is known
about the Miller we'll, for the formations
we're not identified at that time, but
there is every reason to believe, today
that the Miller farm will produce oil
when it is drilled and acidized.
Had anyone in those pioneer times
bought royalty on that tract, he could
still have his royalty today and still
have 1t when this tract is drilled into
commercial production. Royalties, I'M
like stocks and bonds, live with the
title to the land. Leases may expire ana
companies and their stocks and bonds
may go out of existence but royalty CON-
tinues on so long as the land title con-
tinues.
So it is that the man who bought roy
alties in the early days Of the fielo,
especially Oh the West side. may have
been dissatisfied because early day pro-
ductioh methods brought him no re-
turns on his Investment. Now comes
acidization and makes farms like those
in the Riihrock pool, among the most val
uable in the field. Certainly these high
gravity oil wells are destined to come
into their own at a far more propitlous