Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-04-27

~ EREWITH is a clipping from an
Illinois paper, forwarded TO us by
member OF this organization,
with no comment No comment is neces-
sary. He has a substantial investment
in Montana and it is i'm Montana that
he has faith that deep drilling will make
fortunes from royalty investments which
today pay only "A small income or i'm
terest on the investment. II is hard
for outsiders to understand why Montana
operators do not emulate the successes
of operators in other fields They are
particularly perturbed 10 know why
Montana, with known structures and
presence of oil established, has no deep
drilling while the Dakotas, with no oil
production and rather uncertain struc-
lures and formations, get deep tests of
5000 to 1000 feet; likewise Alberta,
north of the Montana border, with no
surrounding production, gets a mile-deep
test into the Devonian, there TO open
up shOwings of oil no greater than those
found in the Frazer-Rice deep test in
Kevin-Sunburst field at a depth Of 1920
feet.
1t is hard to answer these questions.
prOpounded by outsiders. A Seattle
client wrote this week asking: Didn't
they find oil in the Frazer-Rice well in
the Devonian; also didn't they find oil
on the Dry Fork. north of Conrad; also
at Bears Den, in the Sweetgrass Hills,
and also at Baker? What are yOu
waiting for?'
BY you is not meant Landowners
Royalties company, which drills no wells,
but IL is up to us to answer the ques-
ton on behalf of the industry. We, too,
have looked at Illinois with wOndermcnt.
Illinois once had a production peak
greater than Montana yet it fell off I'M
til it was hardly a factor in the national
oil picture The production came only
from the formations above the lime, as
in Montana. Then came deeper drilling
and a well drilled short distance from
the test which "disproved' the Salem
field, near Centralia, was carried some
40 feet deeper than the failure" and it
brought in a good producer. In the two
succeeding years five times as many
wells were drilled in that field as
have been drilled in the producing fields
of Montana in 10 years.
If as many wells were drilled in Cut
Bank as were drilled in Salem field, in
the same period of time, Montana might
today be threatening the crude oil mar
ket. The reason that Illinois had such
swift development is the fact that IL is
close TO centers of finance and popula-
ton. DevOnian drilling in Illinois, as in
Montana, is relatively shallow drilling.
All the old Illinois operators were afraid
to risk deeper drilling. 1t was the
NEWCOMERS, fresh from fields where a
10 OOO-foOt well is an everyday affair,
who saw no problem in drilling 1900
feet to test the Illinois DevOnian which
formation has produced in every oil state
in the Union where it has been tested
on structure. The instant that oil was
found, there were millions of dollars
quickly available for development from
nearby cities. The majors always insist
on seat in the front row in a BIG
play. In a little play they are not
present.
The crowd always runs to the spot
where the band is playing and Montana
lacks a brass band, so many Montana
operators, hearing the band" In Illinois
took the money they had made in Mon
tana fields and dashed into Illinois to
try their luck. We talked with one of
them this week. He told us something
of the avalanche of money that flooded
the oil fields of Illinois. One Gut Bank
operator, orr friend told us, bought
royalty on 2O-acre tract ahead of the
drill i'm the Salem field Our friend was
authorized to buy it, The price offered
was $50, 900, so he wired the Gut Bank
operator an offer of $25, 5000 thinking