Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-09-05

AND THERE ABANDONED?
We would have all accepted the conclusion
that the Twin Rivers nose" was disprOven
So it goes with the wildcat wells We
have bought royalties on beautiful structures
folds which are known to be excellent
traps for oil; they have been drilled to the
Cat Greek sands-the approximate horizon
Of the Sunburst sand-and there abandoned
as "disprOving" the structure
Those structures are no more disprOven
than was the Kelvin field when the old
Miller well was abandoned in 1912. Yet a
lot Of peOple-including the big companies
believed for 10 years that the Miller wen
disprOved not only Kelvin but most of North
ern Montana.
Knowing the faIIacious reasoning of the
earIy-day industry, we know that every roy
atty deed should be placed Of record Not
only the POSITIVE CERTAINTY that other
strata in the Madison lime will produce but
the fact that SIXTY PERCENT of the ma
toms crude comes from horizons BELOW
the big Hme"-frOm the DevOnian and
OrdOvician makes us believe that the Madi-
son contact is not the end Of possibilities
In Montana.
We believe that for every dollar produced
from present producing formations In Mon
tana there win be TEN dollars or more pro-
duced from the lower formations below the
top Of the Madison lime.
Many people do not realize that royalty
is NOT like stock in a company. The COM
pany may have failure and the stock be-
comes worthless, especially I'm drilling a
wildcat well A royalty continues In effect,
no matter how many failures. One driIler
may test the Sunburst sand and abandon
his we'll
The royalty stin obtains
Another drilIer may test the top of the
lime
The royalty stiIl obtains, no matter wheth-
er there is a producing well, a show of oil,
dry hole or water flow.
Still another driIler may come along, years
afterward, and drill to the Turner Valley
horizon and get oil, or he may go to the
DevOnian or OrdOvician and get oil.
The royalty stiII obtains.
The owner Of that royalty never has 10
invest another penny. He does not even have
to pay taxes on it. He may have an invest
ment of $4,000 and that money may give
him ownership of thousands Of barrels Of
recoverable oil. But he pays no taxes until
such time as the oil Is brought to the sur
face of the ground That investment is not
only tax-prOOf but it is infIation-prOof 1t
Is an ownership like land ownership. 1t is
not depleted unless it is operated. And
it is operated, the royalty owner gets his
share, no matter by whom the drilling is
done.
If Helen Anderson, Mr.. EdenfieId or MIR.
Fitzpatrick had only kept us informed as
to their whereabouts, they had no worry
about their investment. dozen or more
operators might have come and gone, each
one drilling a discouraging well Ii would
have meant nothing. All that counts Is that
producing wells HAVE been drilled on their
properties and they now have money coming
from the sale of their oil Helen Anderson
has not only one but SIX oil wells on her
If there is anyone who knows the where
abOuts Of either of these three we will ap-
preciate any information that may be given
If they have passed away, that fact is like
wise important as we must then locate the
heirs, and see that they get not only the
earnings but title to the vaIu-
able properties as well.