Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1938-08-20
DON'T SELL MONTANA SHORT

THERE IS no spot in the petroleum
world today that deserves more
careful watching than the State of
Montana
The next year will see some OF the
most important developments in the
history of the Montana Industry. lead
ing to the discovery Of gusher pools
which will oyershadow the sensationally
successful development OF shallow fields.
This will come from deep drilling. For
years past we have been talking about
deep drilling.It is no longer conversation,
but is now becoming a reality. Deep
drilling is definitely the program OF
the Montana oil industry, with greater
odds and less risk than any previous
stage of our oil industry.
Deep drilling is no novelty in the oil
industry. Ever since the first fields in
Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia
were discovered MANY years ago at
depths of few hundred feet bits have
dug progressively deeper. What is in
teresting is the sharply increasing depths
attained in recent years. Eight years
ago a 10,000-foot we'll had NOT yet been
heard of. Since then we'll over 100
holes have been pushed to that depth
and beyond, and others as deep are
now drilling.
Now biologists are talking about the
possibility Of drilling down to 10000
even 5000 feet. That is for California
and not for Montana. In California
such depths do not even reach the first
producing horizons of Montana, because
of the erosion OF younger beds in this
state Montana has 100 structures
which require a MAXIMUM of Ia. 900
feet to test all known producing horizons
Is there any limit to the depth at
which oil may be found? Certainly
The basement granite defines that In
Kevin-Sunburst field as an example.
it is believed that around $500 feet will
reach the granite whereas in California
the sedimentary beds are said to be
10000 feet thick in some places.
The presence OF oil in the Devonan
in Montana is an established fact Now
that the industry stops to think about
it, everyone is surprised that none has
taken advantage of deep drilling techni-
que to drill test to the Devonian on
good structure.
The deepest drilling in Montana is
in the eastern edge where Montana Da-
kota Utilities drilled 5000 feet to
reach the Devonian-and there found oil
A well drilled behind a fault on
Bears Den structure was a dry hole in
the upper formations so it was carried
on down to the Devonian-and it found
oil
"dry hole" in the upper sands in
the northeast end of Kevin-Sunburst
field-down on the flank of the struc-
ture-was carried on down to the De-
vonian. 1t found oil
A dry hole in a hopeless location on
the Dry Fork of the Maras river, north
of Conrad, was carried on down to the
top of the Devonian. 1t found oil.
There is no doubt of the existence of
oil any more than the known fact that
there are layers of sedimentary beds of
alternating shales and sands, the first be-
ing the generating rock for oil and the
second the reservoir. 1t remains for some
one to drill a well to the Devonian on
good structure. The only way Devonian
structure can be accurately mapped is by
geophysics, but geophysics are already
an integral part of wildcat drilling in
Montana
Granting that oil will be found, the
next question is whether we may expect
big wells. There was a time when we