Show petroleum and natural gas in wyoming W yomi ng by W R s the presence of oil and natural gas in wyoming coming has been known for a long time and many more or less sporadic attempts have been made to develop these resources commercially but owing to a number of factors such as inadequate transportation facilities lack of capital and poorly advised prospecting it has been only within years that wyoming has taken other than han a minor part in oil production with he successful development of the salt creek beek field north of casper however pros unlike that of many other oil and gas producing regions the history of production in wyoming has not been marked by large or excessive waste of either gas or oil this exceptional feature is the natural result of local conditions for there have been few instances where wells to producing sands have not been easy to control the generally excellent quality of the oil produced has also been a factor in discouraging cou raging waste for it is self evident to the operators that any waste of oil means com bation of oil and natural gas in wyoming and supplemented that study by personal inspection of conditions in the california fields the main purpose of this work was to ascertain what waste if any now accompanies the industry in wyoming and if such waste were in evidence to suggest means for its prevention no attempt is made in this paper to discuss other than the commercial phases of the subject as the geology of the fields and the yield of the wells have already been presented in nang Z franco franc n eremi nery pas pe ina acting received a new and vigorous im etus and at the present time many rigs rig s re being operated at widely scattered lo 10 C cities in the endeavor to develop othel othe qually remu remunerative 1 nera tive territory gas has een discovered in the state in consider ble le quantity notably in the bighorn ba tin n but owing to marketing limitations its is ro resource source has thus far not been utilized ily illy reduction in financial returns in general the oil of wyoming is of paraffin base and of low specific gravity with a consequent large percentage of lighter distillation t til lla tion products conditions are therefore quite different from those prevailing for hi instance stance in those california or gulf coast fields where the oils have an w base acting under instructions from the director of th the e bureau of mines the writer spent a part of the winter of 1912 13 in the field collecting data relative to the cutill various publications of the united states geological survey As stated previously the writer noted in wyoming few instances of unnecessary waste of oil or gas hence the present paper is rather a hare bare recital of conditions without related recommendations certain exceptions to this statement are however noted later in the text the writer desires to acknowledge the courtesy of various operators in the state and he feels under especial obligation to mr homer T lamb of the bighorn oil 0 11 gas co at grey greybull bull and to the represent natives of the midwest oil company and of the natrona pipeline refining company at casper the refinery superintendent of the midwest oil company mr william dietrich also deserves special mention commercial output of oil in wyoming is to be credited mainly to four areas of which the salt creek field north of casper yields the greater proportion the byron field in the northern part of the bighorn basin furnishes oil for a small refinery at cowley a railroad station four miles from the wells the spring valley field in uinta county has been yielding oil in small amounts for a number of years neb mea lander a heavy oil has until recently been delivered to the northwestern railroad for fuel and there now seems reason to anticipate a moderate production of a light refining oil from adjacent territory small amounts of oil have been obtained from various other localities in the state douglas moorcroft and newcastle buethe but the production has not been of consequence the commercial utilization of natural gas in wyoming has been thus far practically confined to the greybull field which supplies to greybull and to the town of basin six miles dista distant hit f from rom the field large amounts of gas are presumably obtainable in the byron field one well yielding over cubic feet daily but a market has not been found gas is associated socia ted with the oil of the spring valley field but in small amounts and the entire supply can be used locally for development work gas is present also at douglas but the wells are capped the heavy oils at lander are accompanied by some gas part of which has been utilized locally for drilling purposes A gas well of large production has been reported from the western part of the bighorn basin the utilization of the oil and gas of these various areas is considered separately on the following pages salt creek field about forty miles due north of casper is an oil producing area known as the salt creek field the name being derived from the main stream of the district the presence of oil in the locality as springs or surface seeps was probably known prior to 1880 and the first wells were drilled in 1889 by 1893 oil was hauled by wagon to casper but the production was necessarily small the first well to reach the lower sand was not drilled until the fall of 1908 and it was not until 1910 that the develop ment of the oil resources was undertaken on a scale commensurate with the value of the field when the midwest oil company representing french and colorado capital acquired holdings this company erected a refinery at casper and connected it with the field by a pipe line A smaller bation known as the natrona pipeline refining company also erected a refinery which was likewise connected with the field in december 1912 the midwest refinery capacity was about barrels of crude daily and about 1000 barrels a day passed through the natrona plant several months later the midwest company comp any took over by lease the holdings of the natrona organization and at present is in complete control of the refining of the oils the capacity of each plant is to be increased for heretofore the midwest company has bas been unable to refine the product of all of its wells and about half of them have been capped the midwest refinery is equipped with nine crude stills six of which have a capacity of barrels each a day and three a capacio of barrels each when operated as a skimming plant an addition to this refinery is in course of construction and will include six barrel crude oil stills the present refinery has a storage capacity for crude oil of about barrels the tanks are about three quarters of a mile from and forty feet above the refinery so that the oil flows by gravity to the crude stills oil is brought to the storage tanks through a 6 inch line from the field there being a pumping plant near the wells and another midway between the field and the tanks no attempt is made at either re refiner fillie to make other than simple cuts in re ii and the usual products comprise illuminating and gas oils and fuel oil res buum at times the demand for the f fue oil residuum is so insistent that the r heui eu eries have been operated as plants that is only the benzine and naph nap tha are distilled and the remaining pr n duct is used as fuel this procedure is 1 of course not adopted except when reni ren ered imperative in order to fulfill the tern term of contracts for fuel oil at present there is practically 11 waste in handling the crude oil in th analyses of oils from the salt creek field A S crossfield analyst wall creek shannon fuel oil oila sandstone sandstone laboratory no specific gravity at 15 C distillation atmospheric pressure per percent cent per percent cent per cent J 0 to 1500 C 34 00 00 to C 57 0 0 to 2000 C 25 0 to C 4 48 8 0 n to C 63 0 0 01 to 2750 C 60 0 0 41 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 to C 59 2 A 4 to ao C 1 l 0 D distillation st illation 10 mm of mercury vacuum to 1750 C 1 5 2 17 7 to C 26 ig 2 23 to C S 2 87 7 4 2250 to 2501 C S 2 1139 IS 9 to 2751 C 48 1110 10 lo 1136 to C 1 1196 G 1109 to C 1119 11 ll 11 residue 41 water 7 9 0 loss 40 7 4 REMARKS laboratory no see 25 T 40 N R 79 IV salt creek field natrona county wyoming owned by midwest mid west oil company sample taken from lint line leading to field storage tank sampled baw R calvert december 31 1912 laboratory no shannon well no lNa trona county wyoming salt creek field owned by franco american oil Company Sampled by W R calvert december 31 1912 laboratory no fuel oil Midwest Mid weston company sampled by W R calvert Pe december cember 31 1912 crude is refined removing gasoline kerosene and gas on oil sample is residue solid with crystalline paraffin at loo 10 C crystalline paraffin separates at 9 24 C contains no crysta crys linc paraffin at 13 C contains some crystalline paraffin at contains much paraffin 13 asid C with crystalline paraffin at 24 C crystalline paraffin separates at 14 C solid with crystalline paraffin at 23 C t solid with crystalline paraffin at 00 0 C contains much vaseline and paraffin salt creek field although formerly less care was taken at the wells there is however certainly an economic loss in ua ing as fuel oil the residuum below the gas oil cut containing as it does valuable constituents for lamp oils lubricating oils and waxes the oil should be completely refined in the salt creek field two distinct wes types of oil occur one from a sandstone designated the wall creek and the other tron a higher sands sandstone tODO termed the shannon the oil from tn th former is dark green in color brownish j by y reflected light and has a specific graat graap ity ty of at 15 C 13 at 60 F the shannon oil is of a slightly lighter T hue and the color by reflected light is not so pronounced its specific gravity is at 15 C B at 60 F both oils tend to congeal under lowering temperatures I 1 though the shannon oil possesses I 1 this characteristic to the greater degree so no especial difficulty is experienced during ing the winter months in piping the light er oil but that from the shannon sandstone stone is apt to clog little of the latter has been piped out of the field however fand and at the time of the writers visit it was being stocked in a barrel storage cage tank near the wells for the purpose of comparison the analyses of the wall creek and shannon oils bof of the salt creek field are given above and an analysis of the fuel oil marketed from the midwest refinery is also shown these analyses were made in the petroleum laboratories of the bureau of mines at pittsburgh pa from samples collected by the writer 1 an analysis of the crude refined by the midwest oil company made in the refinery laboratory at casper has been furnished by the superintendent william dietrich L this analysis is as follows percent per cent gasoline 1892 at 62 B naphtha at 52 B kerosene 2400 at 43 B mineral seal at 37 B gas oil 1750 at 35 B wax oil 1500 at 30 B tar 1600 loss j from the foregoing analyses it is ev evident i dent that the oil from the envall creek sand of the isalt creek field is a valuable product the shannon crude is essentially a lubricating oil and as such it has more value barrel for barrel than that now refined according to irving C allen alien petroleum leum chemist for the bureau of mines sample would have a value of about t per barrel on the basis of comparison r with the prevailing price of similar pennsylvania crude and the value of f samples and would have on the same basis a value in excess of per barrel barrel these brudes have no rational place in fuel oils scientific and proper methods of refining are most important if most efficient use of crude materials is desired these brudes have a high value tor or the preparation of refined products they hey should not be used as fuel the salt creek eek and byron oils are high grade refan oils practically no use has been made PIUS hus far of the shannon ails oils for the reason that the available production is much ess than that from the wall creek sand wells drilled in the shannon sand are small producers averaging about 3 barrels a day wells in the wall creek sand or some in the associated shale may come in with an initial daily production in excess of 1200 barrels and settle down to a barrel production byron field in the northern part of the bighorn basin fifteen miles south of the montana wy oming state line is a small area where oil is produced commercially this is designated the byron oil field as the wells are near the town of byron the billings montana oil company operates in this field and its wells supply crude to a refinery at cowley a railroad station five miles to the north this refinery has a capacity of barrels a day the normal yield of the wells is more than sufficient to supply the refinery and it is necessary to pump them only part of the time As at the midwest refinery at casper the products comprise gasoline kerosene gas oil and fuel oil residuum until recently some difficulty was experienced in marketing the last named product but in january the stock was practically exhausted in physical character the byron oil is a thin liquid brownish red by transmitted lighty light and olive green in reflected light the specific gravity is at 15 C or about 42 B following is an analysis of the byron crude made in the laboratory of the bureau of mines from a sample obtained on the E E D jones lease no 5 well D A PIA 0 0 4 e 7 7 1 41 E S I 1 f k wr P 4 1 Z ui 61 c 0 V A S E V R N apt 0 e V CO A J T A W or 17 M I 1 to W t L A T E C A A A N V its N S THE cw r 7 C sketch map of the wyoming oil fields analysis of oil from the byron field A S crossfield analyst laboratory no specific gravity at 15 C distillation atmospheric pressure per cent 0 to 0 C 47 1500 to 1750 C to C 2000 to 2 2 5 C 87 2250 to 2500 C 1 1 72 2 2500 to 2750 C 80 to C contains con bains no crystalline paraffin at 1 15 5 C crystalline paraffin at i contains s some 15 C adolid with rith crystalline e paraffin at 15 C contains no crystalline paraffin baraff in at 13 C distillation 9 mm of mercury vacuum per cent to C 41 15 5 to C 4 25 to 2250 C 0 O to G S to 2750 C 49 to C 34 to C B residue 1 1 41 4 7 water 0 23 loss v solid with crystalline paraffin fin at 10 C v j I 1 I 1 solid with cryst crystalline allind paraffin at 00 0 C solid with crystalline paraffin at 23 C spring valley field the spring valley oil field is situated in uinta county southwest wyoming the name being derived from that of a station on the union pacific railroad which passes not far to the south of the producing area development more or less sporadic has been in progress here since 1902 and there are five companies at present in the field production has never been large seldom amounting to more than barrels per day the wells are of small individual capacity and it is necessary to pump practically from the time they come in except occasionally when after capping the gas pressure accumulates to such a degree that the oil is ejected on release of pressure oil produced in this field is piped to the loading station on the railroad through the line of the pittsburgh salt lake oil company and shipped to the plant of the utah oil refining company at salt lake city the president and general manager of the latter company J C howard has furnished the following information relative to this particular oil the crude in the spring valley field as received at our plant runs about to 41 B ba and has a light green color though in the neck of a 4 ounce oace bottle it appears to be red it is a sweet crude oil without any perceptible trace of sulphur it produces about 16 per cent of gasoline 62 ba 35 per cent of water white kerosene 43 ba 10 per cent of para paraffin effin gas oil 35 ba and contains 66 per cent of wax of which we are able to recover 3 to 4 per cent when run through our presses in the crude scale form the melting point of this wax is about |