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Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT
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ooumal l-Aontan ESTABLISHED 1921 PUBLISHED WEEKLY Owned and published by the Montana Oil Journal, a Montana corporation. Address all communications to 618 First National Bank Building, Great Falls, Montana. O. I. DeSCHON. publisher SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 12.00 Per Year in Advance—Canada and Foreign Subscriptions 32.60, 31.26—6 Months. Foreign 31.75—6 Months. "* Published Every Saturday. Entered as Second Class Matter, April 23, 1921, at the Post Office at Great Falls, Montana.—Under Act of March 3, 1879. Per Year. The Montana Oil & Mining Journal endeavors to insure the honesty and trustworthiness of every advertisement it prints and avoid the publication of all advertisements containing misleading statements or claims. ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION WHO IS THE FATHER OF THE CHILD? The Journal has been subject to some criticism because we have taken no editorial stand on the matter of proration. This is i another matter that is not to be determined by an editorial policy. The columns of the Journal are open to proponents and opponents j of the plan. We frankly confess that we know little about proration How it could be applied to our complex market situation, we do not know. We can find no condemnation for the Montana refiners who j have their own production and who are running their own oil through their own plants, marketing finished products through their own outlets. It is hard for us to find a reason why these producers, who have risked everything on the hazards of the re finering industry, should be asked to shut in their own production and to buy oil from others. What we have seen the producers do to Independent refiners in this state during the past 16 years leads us to wonder whether the refiners owe anything to the Independent producers. At the same time we cannot see that this is the problem of any | one company: the Ohio Oil company or The Texas company, even | thouprh they have presumed to post prices in the past. The person who claims that the nameless problem child was found on the door step of The Texas company utters a libel. Texas company was harder hit by the loss of the Canadian market than any other, hav ing had greater production than any other. Yet is has its own production, its own pipeline, its own refinery and its own outlets. Off hand we can think of no Cut Bank or Kevin operator who, if he had his own production, his own refinery and his own outlets, would not go joyously about producing his own wells. Whose baby is it? With the wisdom of Solomon, the editor of the Journal could not make a decision at this time. We know*, of course, if Texas company DID adopt this plan, those operators without a market would he pumping* their share of the oil into earthern storage, rather than have it taken away from them by off set wells. Probably Mr. Ickes would be glad to become the foster father of our nameless problem child. That would mean federal intervention. HOME BUYS HELENA GARAGE Home Oil & Refining Co. of Great Falls has purchased the Central garage at Helena from R. C- Hof man, who has operated the garage for 20 years The garage will herer after handle Silver gasoline and other Home products. It is under stood that John Rice will have charge of the Helena establishment. Hoffman will continue as Conoco agent for Helena. DRILLING AT 7,000 Columbia Oils, Ltd., drilling in soulheasternu British Columbia, north of Columbia Falls, Is re ported making hole with diamond drill at 7,000 feet. Canadian Kootenai company is reported work ing in the same district. ON TOP OF GAS SAND SCOBBY—White tail well near here is reported to have reached the top of the gas sand and is waiting for a control head before drilling in. PARAFFIN SOLVENT DOWELL INCORPORATED SHELBY, MONTANA Telephone 133 CODY, WYOMING—Telephone 434 *R*gUtertd U. S. Patent Offlc* I I ■ I • THE NEW ARRO GASOLINE 1 DUBBS CRACKED AND STABILIZED FOR CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 1 THE HOME PRODUCT MANUFACTURED FROM MONTANA CRUDE OIL ARRO OIL 8 REFINING COMPANY LEWI8T0WN, MONTANA TO&mbuftt Nina Clock—our old-fashioned girl friend—is so modest that when she dreams of a car ride she walks in her sleep. By Example Let not him who is houseless pull down the bouse of another, hoi let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example in suring that his own shall he e%fe from violence when built. —Abraham Lincoln 9 We learn of the invention of a chair that can be adjusted to 1600 different positions. A swell gadget for a pumper! I BULLETIN ON ACIDIZATION Below is printed one of our current bulletins which II we had intended for mailing to our members only. We p submitted the original to several Kevin operators for g criticism and correction, asked for copies. burst field it doubled the production of that field, merely treating old wells. Producers which had an initial of 15 to 20 barrels and which had been all but abandoned were turned into flowing wells, in many instances, by acidization. The field responded with an average in crease of 400 per cent, which allowed for some wells that developed a greater increase in water than oil. There followed a gradual improvement in technique un til today the business of acidization is becoming a la boratory science. We try to keep our members inform ed on these matters and for those who keep a file of our publications we suggest that they clip out this article as it will not be sent out in the usual bulletin form. Others, hearing about it, When it appeared that operators were as interested as our membership, we decided to publish it in this column. The paper was not submitted to any of the acid experts in Kevin-Sunburst, but we doubt that they would disagree. We are trying to keep abreast of this most important science which will doubt less increase the amount of recoverable oil in lime pro ducing fields by 40 to 50 per cent and may even double the ultimate recovery of many properties. When acid was introduced in 1933 in Kevin-Sun H S s n AILÜRE of some wells to respond to acidization, while nearby wells are acidized into big producers has been the subject of much discussion In Kevin-Sunburst field this fall among op erators who regard acidization as Im portant an operation as the drilling of the well itself. Foolsih economics or shortcuts in acidization are being aban doned by better operators, likewise many experimental methods have been aban doned in favor of methods which have proven successful in a majority of cases. Heavy shots, as a rule, have not prov en successful although It Is possible that further experimentation will reveal that wells which failed to respond to large shots might not have responded at all to customary 500-gallon shots and like wise wells which have been greatly In creased by 500-gallons, shot« might have been made into really large wells with larger shots. However, enthusiasm about the Midcontinent practice of multi thousand gallon treatments has greatly waned. One factor that has developed is more careful laboratory work. Formerly little attention was paid to the character of the lime and the acid mixture was vir tually the same—depending on the in vidual idea of the operator—for every well. Now the operators take careful samples of the drill cuttings and deter mine the reaction of the lime to acid. It has been found that weaker solutions of acid do best in some lime while stronger solutions do best in others. Too strong acid hase proven harmful in many instances. At the same time, too-rapld travel of the acid, with harmful effects, has caused the development of a techni que whereby a substance has been in troduced to slow up the travel of the acid in the old flow-channels, forcing the acid to react on new surfaces in the limestone. This substance is a Dowell product known as Jell. It is used on old wells rather than new producers wherein the chief problems have arisen. Kevin operators are again convinced that porosity of the lime has much to do with he success, with or acl of any lime well. The the fielt the Carl son farm in Section 22. These wells showed more oil than the average well, before acidization. After acidization they dried up completely. Yet less than a quarter of a mile east of the Carlson farm was recently completed a well that made 150 barrels initially without acidi zation. On the Carlson farm the for mation seemed to tighten up when the acid was applied. It was impossible to force the aoid back Into the formation. I Discontinuous porosity in limesi has been carefully studied by the geologists of Dowell, Inc., and an instance of dis continuous porosity in the upper Monroe limestone in parts if the Vernon pool. Isabella county, Michigan, Is attributed to secondary deposition of flourite, ac cording to P. E. Fitzgerald, formerly of Shelby, and O. A. Thomas The erratic behavior of wells in that pool were ex plained by the precipitation of the fluor ite with the Infiltration of oil, with the result than many of the crystals are char acterized by hydrocarbon inclusions. It Is not unlikely that secondary deposits of other minerals such as calcite, celestlte and barite may account for continuous porosity booming discontinuous or even porosity becoming discontinuous or even completely destroyed. Some such condl * Where wells have drilled from the black lime directly into the maselve white lime of the Madison, even with a slight showing at the top, it has been found that the lime Is not likely to give much oil after acidization. If must have por osity. It Is believed that infiltration o{ groundwaters into the limestone, these waters carrying organic acids, is reepon slhle for the porous material found at the "contact." I F These acids dissolved small amounts of limestone and the presence of certain Iron and alumin The compounds are soluble in a relatively strong acid solu tion, but in the almost neutral spent acid solution resulting from the reaction of the acids with the limestone, they will be reprecipitated as Insoluble ferric hy droxide and aluminum hydroxide. These precipitates are colloidal and their pre cipitation is accompanied Iby an increase in volume# making them fairly effective plugging agents. Percentages of iron ||| found in the formation may make for fe the success or failure of the chemical treatment. According to Dowell, the most feasible way to eliminate possible difficulties of this type is to withdraw the treating so lution from the formation before it is neutralized below the point at which precipitation of the products takes place. gj That time element must be pre-determin ed In the laboratory. The industry will watch with interest || the acidization of the Fulton-Thompson No. 2 well. His No. 1 well had a larger showing of oil than any other in the Rrimrock high gravity oil pool. 7 _ treated with 1,000 gallons of hydrocholor 1c acid and shot with nitro glycerin. In stead of being made ii^to a big producer, it dried up. Only with the ablest of handling was it brought back to Its proximate initial production. r ~' 2 well has a similar showing of oil, mak ing a small commercial well as it stands. It wll not be treated until spring or until a market is available but the result of |r a different method of treatment will be ^ watched with keen interest. Recently we learned of a .patented pro cess whereby soap is introduced in oil wells to hold back the flaw of water, still allowing oil to drain into the hole. We know of none who has tried this method in Kevin-Sunburst where water is a prob lem in the East pool. That pool has produced around $14,000,000 worth of M oil, so acid has in some instances devel oped more water than oil, giving rise to a problem that has'not been fully solved. The use of "jell' > has been most effective in this district, inasmuch as this sub tance close up the old flow channels and forces the acid to open up new porous areas in which oil concealed. Where oil occurs In lime vugs and cavities of this sort, acid is about the only method where by this oil can be released. The prob lem of holding back water during this "clean-up" proess is yet to be solved. compounds. uni _ as &n impervious bed was encountered, traveled parallel to the bedding planes. Thus the largest amount of continuous porosity de velops more or less parallel to the bed ding planes where,' by virtue of the mode or orgln of the beds, resistance to migra tion is the least. \ The Dowell people point out that g n ,, many wells have been drilled within a few feet of the depth at which It was almost cer tain that water would be encountered. yet little or no bottom water entered the wells for a long period of time. This is said to be proof that a majority of the oil-bearing pores do extend horizantally rather than vertically. i It is a generally accepted theory that vertical migration of oil In this field suits in the accumulation at the top of the Madison lime, oil coming up through faults and cracks in the massive lime encounters the impervious materials In the Ellis formation which form a dam and thus the oil accumulates In the soft, porous material at the top of the Madison lime, migrating through horizontal por osity away from the faults or cracks In the lime. The occasional well, such as the Ohlo-Baker No. 3, has struck the fault itself and has produced many (times as much oil as the porous formations of the adjacent 40 acres could possibly have contained. Where there is horizontal porosity, there is better opportunity of opening up new channels to these fault sources. This theory is predicated on the origin of oil In the Devonian or lower formations and the further conclusion that the oil is forced upward through faulting into the contact material by a hydrostatic head which In due course of time invades the contact formation, in the Adams-Harte pool. Discontinuous porosity, again, halts the widespread encroachment of water over the field. In the Gladys Belle group the old wells had turned to water, yet the Rice well on the same farm In undrilled territory a half mile distant was one of the largest wells of the year, after acidization, with no great amount of water. A second well on the farm, a quarter of a mile distant, had no por osity, apparently, for It did not respond to acid and was abandoned. This may proved evidence of discontinuous porosity that may safeguard the Gunderson pool from water invasion from the Gladys Belle pool. Another problem has been pretty well solved, in that many wells which seemed to respond well to acid and were im mediately shut In, were later opened up and found to be virtually dry. It has been determined that when a well Is acidized and the acid is not completely removed by swabbing or hard pumping that a chemical reaction occurs that re suits in building up a gum or other sub stance that actually dams the flow chan nels. Operators have now learned that they should produce their wells until such time as all acid has been removed The use of a tubing swab Is regarded as excellent practice to remove all trace of acid from the hole. Jn should acid .be allowed to remain in the formation over a long period of time. Samples from one well in the Sweetgrass hills conclusively showed results of al lowing the acid to stand on the forma tion. In this Instance the tubing parted and it was impossible to pump the acid off. When is was finally reamed out, the cuttings of the side walls were found to be glazed over as if burned. Whereas the well had appeared to be greatly Im proved by the acrid Immediately after treatment, It was in fact damaged when the acid was allowed to stand* on the formation. A gum formed which ac tually held the production back. Geologists now carefully examine the formation which Is believed to be a subject for acid treatment, to determine re m 1= It was Ü ap The No. r! as dization, most baffling problem in was öfteres by wells on 4! ... Of greatest importance to us, as royal ty Investors, is the expansion of the productive area of Kevin-Sunburst field |g by the use of acid. The older areas, such as the East pootl, are of little in terest so far as investment is concerned. The new areas, epecially tljp western part of th field, offer as great opportunity as ^ a new oil field. We saw in the completion of the Pfabe & Engleking-Enneberg producer, three miles west of former production, an ex ample of what may be expected from add. Here is a new old field, with no loss of pressure or drainage. With the produc tion history of the older parts of the g field to guide us, we can make invest ments today with far greater safety and assurance than ever before In our his tory. Abandoned "dry holes" on the outskirts of the field are today sign boards pointing toward greater wealth than the pioneer opportunities aflforded. Where there was a showing of oil at the top of the lime, there is the possibility of another Bn n aber g producer that is to day rated as a hundred barrel well. This opportunity Is made possible by the science of acidization. So far as we can see, there are limitless possibilities for Investors who can grasp the signifi cance of what has happened and apply It to few well chosen Investments head of the drill. s£ 1 no case 1 i § i I Landowners Royalties Co. Box 1225 i LANDOWNER'S ROYALTIES COMPANY Great Falls, Montana. i i Without obligation please s end me publications descrip tive of areas of greatest possl bdlities through the science of acidization. i (Your Name In Full) I m HEAD OFFICE. GREAT FALL», MOHTANA i EPITAPH A nervous man «was Bill Green, Who worked upon the leases, He kicked a oan of glycerine. And then flew all to pieces. Frank;—What's the difference be tween a traffic cop and a women?" Jack;—'When the cop says "stop" he means it..' RECREATIONAL PASTIME Some folks seem to have adopted as their motto: "Marry In haste, repeat at leisure." • ••*•• Beneath the spreading chestnut tree The smith worked like the deuce, But now he's selling gasoline, Hot-dogs and orange Juice. 9 THE PHILANTHROPIST 'How can yon talk to me like that," she walled. 'Rafter I've given you the best years of my life?'* "Yeah?" returned the husband, unimpressed by her emotion. "And who made 'em the best years of your life?" An old-fashioned girl who believes in safety first is the one who takes her cigarette out of her mouth be fore pulling EeTnight-gown on over her head.