Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-12-16
WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

wldcatter who drilled a lest well
in the Salem, H., field, explored the
ordinary producing horizons and pulled
out, to the disgust of his stockholders
and of the farmers in the District. He
drilled and abandoned the dry hole in
accordance with the rules.
Years later came the science Of geo
physics whereby a seismograph is used
TO determine variations in the earth's
crust below the mantle of clays. sands
and shales The seismograph confirmed
the opinion of the wildcatter about the
presence of a structure at Salem and a
major company started another test,
close to the abandoned hole If struc-
ture is present the major officials
reasoned, their should be some oil in it:
If not in one horizon then in another or
another-with a probable limit Of 5000
or 1000 feet maximum.
So it was that the second well was
drilled to the depth of the abandoned
hole-and kept on going FORTY FEET
below the bottom of the dry hole an
Gil strata was encountered that ushered
in the Salem field which is today pro-
ducing 100000 barrels of oil per day.
If the pages of history could he set
back to do this over, and a select few of
us could know what we know about the
Salem field. there is no question why
the worlds richest men. If we KNEW
that field could be drilled deeper-40
feet or 600 feet-and bring in a great
flood of oil. there is none who would
not 20 out and raise money enough to
buy up all the royalty on that structure.
There is no disagreement about that
theory if it could be applied to Salem
field.
But how about Montana?
We do not know ONE production en-
gineer or ONE operator who does not
believe that there is oil in lower horizons
in Kevin-Sunburst field. Turner Valley
gets it's great wells from the lower part
of the Madison lime-50O feet below
present producing horizons in Kelvin
Sunburst field. The Troy-Sweetgrass
test, abandoned as a dry hole. showed
oil in the lower formations in Kelvin
Sunburst field The Frazier-Rice deep test
struck high gravity oil, similar in quality
to Turner Valley oil
There is no guess work in saying that
the oil found at the top of the lime in
Kevin-Sunburst field COMES FROM Be
Low.
There was no such evidence when
Salem was drilled The outlook was far
more discouraging at Salem than 1t is IN
Kevin-Sunburst today but operators In
Sdlem were euuCdlCu " DISn4I DAeAA%1A@FO
something we know nothing about here
in Montana, where a deep test means
$500 feet.
If we are all convinced that the
SOURCE of the 100000 barrels Of
oil thus far produced in Kevin-Sunburst
is FROM BELOW, then WHAT ARE WE
WAITING FOR?
Certainly we should not delay our pur-
chase OF royalties until a deep test well
is flowing over the top of the crown
block.
We believe that deep test will be
drilled in Kevin-Sunburst field, during
the coming year. This is not an idea"
but is belief based on the statements of
reliable people, who have such plan
in mind 1t is possible, of course, that
the first deep test drilled will not find
oil, but If 1t is drilled with rotary tools
and the formation is cored, as now con-
templated 1t will follow that there will
be adequate data at hand to proceed