Salt Lake Telegram | 1931-07-22 | Page 15 | Expert Gives Cure for Oil Troubles

EXPERT GIVES CURE FOR OIL TROUBLES Unit Operation of Oil Pool Is Necessary to Save the Industry By BENNETT WOLFE Associated Press Staff Writer TULSA OkJa July 22 P IP The root of the petroleum Industry's troubles lies in tie archaic legal concept concept con con- that oil is akin to wild game be becoming becoming be- be coming property only when reduced to possession declares Earl Oliver chairman of the unit operation committee corn com of the American Institute of Mining Engineers In an article to be published In this weeks week's Issue of the Oil and Gas Journal In the opinion of Oliver and more than engineers and lawyers who aided him In a study of unit operation operation opera opera- tion the fundamental step to be betaken betaken taken for stabilization of the Industry Is a revision of the law of oil anc and gas to make Impossible Impassible the legalized robbery that exists under the principle principle prin prin- ciple that oil belongs to anyone who can produce It Unit operation designed to stop competitive drilling drainage with Its wasteful practices and results calls calis for cooperative development of an ol oIl oIlfield field through a pooling of acreage drilling costs cost and production Oliver points out that the owner of potential oil land now has hns no protection protection pro pro- against a rapacious neighbor except to race with him to the ol oil sand and that no what the condition of the market an oil producer producer pro pro- ducer cannot stop drilling cannot stop producing and cannot limit his production unless his neighbors do dothe dothe the same This presumed right o of every drilling drilling drill drill- ing site owner to do what he likes regardless of the effect upon others has reduced the Industry to a condition condition condi condi- tion of anarchy The Journal comments corn com meats ments Matters have come to such sucha a pass that nothing short of a revolutionary change in the whole habit o of thought about oil production can save the industry The remedy as urged by Oliver Is legislation which recognizes that each landowner or leaseholder Is entitled to share proportionately in the oland ol oil and gas In the common reservoir un underneath underneath un- un his land The universal thread running through all Ideas contributed to hi his study of unit operation Oliver says Is that the oil Industry's plight is dl dl- dl due to the peculiar method o of determining ownership In oil and ga gas that was devised by early courts at a time when the characteristics of ol oland oil and gas deposits were little known Obviously before relief will come com cometo to the petroleum industry he continues con con- some method must be de devised devised de- de that will protect each owner big anti and little In his Just shares o of oil and gas from the common reservoir reser reser- voir without the necessity of bringing them to the surface to provide against their appropriation by others Unit operation offers that method Pro Pro- ration based on acreage content likewise likewise like like- wise otters offers it While successful ef efforts efforts ef- ef forts both In unit operation an and equitable demonstrate these results can be obtained under unde present laws the handicaps are s so great as to make them almost In in- in surmountable W. W P P. P Z Gorman chief chic counsel Skelly Oil company who collaborated with Oliver In his study said he be believed be- be the state clearly had the power powe to require unit production