Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-05-13

TWN HE day of magic has returned to
this world, applied to the oil in
dustry. Because the oil industry
has proven to be one of the most re-
numerative of all lines of business,
science has turned its attention to the oil
industry in the last decade with the
result that greater progress has been
made in methods of locating pools. in
drilling and in refining than in all
the previous history of the industry
Outstanding progress has been made in
the utilization of the crude once it is
recovered from the ground. POIymeriza-
ton, followed by catalytic methods have
introduced new standards in motor fuel,
doubling and trebling the efficiency Ov-
er the gasoline of 20 years ago, which
superior fuel sells at a fraction of the
former cost. Not only is the product of
superior quality but the given barrel of
crude oil is producing from 40 to 80 per
cent more motor fuel than it did 20
years ago. With old refining methods,
a barrel of crude oil would produce per-
haps 20 to 30 per cent motor fuel To-
day barrel of crude yields from 20 to
as high as 80 per cent motor fuel.
Were it not for science coming to
the aid of the refining industry. the oil
fields of the United States would not be
able TO supply enough crude to care for
the demands of the millions of new au-
tOmobiIes that are filling the streets and
highways each year. Science entering the
refining industry has doubled the crude
oil reserves of the nation, I.y extracting
twice as much motor fuel from the crude
and this figure may jump higher and
the reserves will be TREBLED, through
science.
Drilling methods were not greatly inn
proved from the days of the Colonel
~ oil
until after the world war. There were
some rotary tools but they were not sat
isfactOry. They drilled crooked holes and
were suitable only for soft formations
There was no apparent method for i'm
proving cable tool drilling. So science
turned its attention to the rotary rig.
Today so per cent of the drilling in the
United States is done with rotary tools
that drill three or four times as fast and
at half the cost of cable tool drilling.
Rotary methods eliminate much expen-
sive casing and the saving in time is a
saving in total cost. There was a time
when rotary equipment was heavy and
cumbersome. It took a week or two to
rig up rotary outfit. Today light port
able rigs are in service in many fields
with drilling depths of 500 feet or
less, that are drilling within few hours
after their arrival location.
Science has given robot control to rO-
tary drilling so that the human element
ON the tools is eliminated. The robot
controls vary the pressure on the revOlv-
ing rock bits according to the nature
of the formation. The hard steel industry
has come to the aid of the oil industry
in providing new types of rock bits that
will cut the hardest formations. Special
bits are available for unusual strata and
with wide selection, the drilIer is able
to quickly learn which bits work best in
new districts
Until rotary drilling was perfected, deep
drilling was out of the question. Now
15,OOO-fOOt wells are not considered re-
markable and science is looking forward
to 10000 and possibly 25,OOO-foot holes.
Each thousand feet of depth means new
horizons and in turn new oil reserves
that could not have been contemplated
10 or even 5 years ago. To say that
science has doubled or trebIed the re-
serve, through ability to drill deeper, to
horizons heretofore beyond commercial
reach of the drill, is a wild guess, but
except for deep drilling, the outlook for
adequate petroleum reserves for this
country would be very dismal today.