Montana oil and mining journal., 1942-04-11

HI SACSc tciHpcSSuOuS LilntS ~ is easy TO
overlook things of tremendous Importance
merely because they are crowded out by the
war, by priOrities, by ratiOning and the other
things which effect our daily lives which
things keep our eyes down, so close to the
present that we cannot see the future.
The recent announcement that R. c.. Tar
rant, Cut Bank operator, would drill De-
vOsian test on Midway structure would have
been banner line news at any other time
II is a news item that we have been anxious
Iy waiting for these many years.
In his first written report ON the poSSibiI-
ity of oil in Kelvin field and In northern
Montana, Gordon Campbell, discOverer of
oil in Montana, stated that the source beds
of petroleum in northern Montana are In
the DevOnian formation. Ever since that
time, students Of the Montana oil industry
have been looking forward to the day when
some operator would make "deep test" to
ascertain the accuracy of Gordon CampbeIps
premise-the premise on which Keyn field
was discovered, for in that same report he
said that Kelvin would be a large oil field
He was right in the one instance Twenty
one years have elapsed and none has proven
nor disprOven the premise of DevOnian oil.
Devonian test means "deep drilling in
Montana but to a Cut Bank operator it is
merely another we'll" The Devonian will
be reached at Midway at around 5000 feet
only slightly deeper than the average Cut
Bank well. Cut Bank wells, lower structural
ly, start in younger beds and end up at
5000 feet in the base of the KOOtenai for
nation. At Midway, erosion has washed
away hundreds of feet of sediments and the
base of the KOotenai at Midway will be
found at 1920 feet-sOme 1900 feet shaII0wer
Tarant's well will continue through the
Ellis, 22O feet thick, and the Madison lime,
77O feet thick, to find the Devonian at
around 27IO feet, cutting the 3s5 feet of
DevOnian to reach total depth Of 3O45 feet.
Below that is 275 feet of Silurian, the oil
possibilities of which are unknown; then 1855
feet Of OrdOvician, likewise an unknown
quantity in northern Montana. The OrdO-
vician is the greatest oil producing horizon
in the MidcOntnent. 1t is the Wilcox sand
horizon which has given the greatest Mid
continent fields However, the OrGiOvician is
not the objective of the test on Midway
only the DevOnian at 3O45 feet.
EnrOute down, the drill will pass through
the Madison lime contact" which produces
In nearby POndera oil field; through the
two or three breaks in the upper lime
which gave Kelvin some of its greatest wells;
and through the Turner Valley horizon,
near the bottom of the Madison lime. For
all we know, the Turner Valley horizon may
produce throughout northern Montana, when
found on structure. Thereafter comes the
DevOnian-
If there is any who doubts that there is
oil in this horizon in the vicinity Of Mid
Wav structure LET him coma IN oy,r office
and we will show him bottle Of oil which
the writer personally took from the sump
Of the Dry Forks well, in the deep syncline
north of Midway. The Dry Forks well hit
oil in the DevOnian. Had the science of
been known, it would have per-
laps been commercial 1t might have COM
1Ietely altered the oil history Of Montana,
or the DevOnian would then have become
he objective of every well drilled in north
,rn Montana. AS it was, this wen was nom