Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1939-09-09

some Canadian promoter who was re-
puted to know no better" kept on
drilling, for the reason that he had
seen many showings of oil in wells
drilled in Turner Valley. He reasoned
that this oil was coming FROM SOME
WHERE. He knew that it was not mi
grating 1aterally through the hard Madi-
son lime and he reasoned that it was
coming FROM BELOW. So it was that
part way through the lime he came upon
a tremendous flow of gasoline-laden gas.
One well, the Royalite No 3, produced
nearly a million dollars worth of naptha.
Thereafter came the venturesome wild
CATER who went down the slope of the
structure, believing the textbooks on
geology which say that gas is found at
the top of the fold; below that is oil
and below that is water. That wild
cater proved something that has been
accepted as a fact since the evolution of
the anticlinal theory. HE FOUND OIL
BELOW THE GAS. And someone else
went down still lower and found water
below the oil.
That is an example of a fact which
everyone knows but which must wait
for years for development. We have
seen in the Kelvin field the "unexplain-
able" fact that wells such as the Ohio
Baker No. have produced more oil
than could be contained in the natural
drainage area of that well IF 1T WE'RE
CAVERN INSTEAD OF AN OIL
BEARING SAND-LIME. There was only
one answer:
THAT OIL IS COMING FROM BELOW.
Everyone knows that when the earth's
surface is upwarped and folded into
structures that the shales bend, but
the lines FRACTURE instead of bend
ing. Where the fractures are large, a
~
face of the broken lime. Where the
fracturing is not so great, a lesser
amount Of oil may find its way to the
surface If, enroute upward, it encoun-
tiers a porous formation such as a limey
sand, it may completely saturate that
formation before continuing its upward
movement Thus it is possible that
there is not only one but SEVERAL
breaks" in the Madison lime which may
contain oil.
The Turner Valley horizon is
break" in the lime about 500 feet be-
low the top of the lime That Turner
Valley is badly faulted and broken is
proved by the fact that it is actually a
part of the Lewis over-thrust
Turner Valley. producing from this
break in the Madison lime is produc-
ing more oil every day than all the oil
fields in Montana which are producing
from formations ABOVE the Madison
lime.
The finding of oil in the Devonian. at
the Waintown-Battleview well, six miles
east of Vemillion, is of less importance
to Canada than it is to Montana. There
may be some who have hesitated about
drilling to the Devonian on the fear that
there is no oil bearing horizon in the
Devonian. We have heard that fear ex-
pressed by some who have said that the
Devonian might be "solid lime"
The Lloydminster well is making low
gravity crude, and is probably a small
producer at best, although estimated at
as high as 800 barrels by Canadians.
No matter how much or how little oil
IN this well, it serves to prove that
here is an oil-bearing horizon in the
Devonian. The structural conditions at
yermillion are not favorable, as com
Jared with hundreds of spots on the
Sweetgrass Arch uplift All we needed
o know is that there is ANY oil in the
)evonian.
1t is generally accepted as a fact that
he Devonian and lower horizons, down
o the Ordovician (Wilcox) horizon are.
he greatest oil horizons of the Midconti-
lent, Texas and New Mexico to the
outh. Now we have production in the