Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-12-09
None Can See Far Ahead
With His Ear To The Ground

1t is strange fact of life that people
who always read with their book or
paper close to their eyes become near
sighted And it is likewise true that
some of us who live for long time in
one community get so we cannot see very
far ahead or very far away. Our per-
spective becomes short and cramped.
This came to our attention this week
when we were visited by some out-of-
Montana oil men who see Montana oil
possibilities from the wide angle of
long distance We were astonished by
their viewpoint on the Montana oil
industry.
AS an example, we are used to
ARGUING about the possibilities of deep
sand production. These men, who have
witnessed the development of oil in a
half dozen states, seemed to take it as
a matter of fact that oil will be found
here below the Madison lime, as else
where The question never arose. The
ony question in their minds was regard
ing the QUALITY of the oil To that
question we had a ready answer because
we have samples of oil taken from the
Frazier-Rice deep test. 1t is high gravity
crude, similar to Turner Valley crude.
looking like distillate rather than crude
petroleum. They examined these samples
with keen interest.
They were perturbed that there was no
more well log data on the formation
below the top of the Madison lime.
We showed them three samples of oil
taken from the Devonian, from wells at
North Montana points so far apart that
they serve merely to prove that there is
oil in the Devonian formation, which is
found about 500 feet below the present
These oil samples came from Kevin-Sun-
burst, Bears Den and Dry Forks.
The Kevin-Sunburst sample was taken
from the Frazier-Rice deep test in Sec
ton 17-35N-1W, on the northeast flank
of Kevin-Sunburst field, where flow
of so-called poison gas" terminated
test at less than $500 feet, just when
the oil had been encountered. Drilled
before the discovery of acidization, the
well merely served to intrigue our visi-
tors in the possibilities of acidizing the
Devonian lime, as has been successfully
done in Illinois and elsewhere in the
East where large production is found in
the Devonian.
The second sample came from Bears
Den deep test, in the Sweetgrass Hills,
some SO miles northeast of Kelvin Sum
burst This well was drilled to a depth
of $685. feet. The visitors grinned as
they read the label on the bottle. 1t
was written by discouraged operator
who secured the sample for US before
abandoning his we'll with it's record Of
showings of oil and gas in all the for
nations above and including the De-
vonian The label reads:
HANDLE WITH CARE. VALUE $780,
10000. FIRST DEVONIAN OIL IN MON
TANA. BEARS DEN WE'LL Is. ~,
T36N, R.5E) DEPTH 3085. 6-24-24.
That was more than Is years ago. Our
visitors did not ask the question but we
read in their attitude that they wanted
to ask: You have known that there
was oil in the Devonian since 1924 Why
has none tried to get some of this oily"
We remarked that the high cost OF
deep drilling had prevented the explora-
ton of the lower horizons.
How deep must one drill? was ask
ed We enumerated drilling depths at
various localities. ranging from $500 to
$500 feet.
"That is not deep drilling, they re-
marked They are accustomed to expect
a deep" we'll to go below 10000 feet.
We showed them the sample Of oil
from Dry Forks WE'LL north of Conrad.
There is no structure at Dry Fork. The
old Dry Forks well was one of the first
drilled in the Sweetgrass Arch and was
drilling for many years through not
only the Madison lime but through
numerous strata of stockholders 1t end
ed, finally, in the Devonian where oil
was encountered The writer was there
at the time and took samples of the OIL