| Show government REPORT ON VIRGIN FIELD the recent discovery of petroleum near virgin city utah has caused much local excitement and attracted considerable capital but outside of newspaper items very little has been published concerning the oil to help supply the demand for information a brief account of the occurrence has been prepared by george B richardson of the united states geological survey and published by the survey in an advance chapter from bulletin no which forms part I 1 of contributions to economic geology 1907 copies of this chapter may be obtained by applying to the director of the survey at washington D C the new oil district is situated in the plateau province in the southwestern corner of utah near the eastern boundary of the basin ranges the region is drained by virgin river and its tributaries tributa ries which flows for miles through st steep beep and narrow canyons among some of the grandest sjon scenery on the continent this region was described more than a quarter of a ago by C E D button in a report entitled the geology of the high plateaus of utah oil seeps seep s have long been known in the vi vicinity of V virgin irgin r city and one of them that occurs close to the river about one and one half miles west of the town led to the sinking of the discovery well in the summer of 1907 oil was struck on july 1 13 3 1907 at a depth of feet below lite surface and the well was sunk to feet this well is said to yield about ten te n barrels in twenty four hours claims have been staked far and wide but oil has not yet been found outside of the immediate vicinity of virgin city A sample of the oil was taken by mr richardson from an open vat where it had been exposed to the weather for a week or more and submitted to dr david T day the petroleum expert of the survey dr days examination of the sample showed the oil to have a specific gravity of equivalent to twenty two degrees baume and to contain some paraffin a large percentage of asphalt and apparently considerable sulphur ur A larger sample received by dr day had bad a specific gravity of or degrees baume commenting on the results of his analyses of this oil dr day says it is evident that though a satisfactory illuminating oil can be obtained from this utah crude petroleum the yield is comparatively small and the oil is better suited for use as a fuel much of the sulphur ur in the oil is in the form of hydrogen jen sulphide easily separated by steaming and hence the oil is preferable to texas oil for use as fuel As to the future of the field little can be predicted whether oil exists in commercially merci ally profitable quantities can be determined only by the drill the thickness of the oil bearing stratum has not been reported and whether or not it is persistent over a wide area is undetermined it is probable that the oil occurs in lenses rather than th an in persistent beds and to judge from what is known of the geology the general conditions are not unpromising although there are some unfavorable complications cat ions |
