| Show I Conserving Oil for the Future I The statements freely sent out for several years by learned scientists that the petroleum resources of the United States were being rapidly exhausted and the supply would not meet the de demand demand demand de- de mand in a few decades has led to a public belief that oil wells are short lived It is common to see the slon sion in print that oil wells last only a few years ears While the general statement that the total output of the known oil fields of the United States may not meet the demands for petroleum twenty years from teem now at the rate of consumptive Increase during the last few years vears it contains an error which creates a av v wrong rong Impression with the public The slogan should be that an oil well never plays out that it never falls fails wholly except through accident Its output does decline The gusher of today making malting tens of thousands of barrels will not maintain that speed beyond the first few tew da days s 's in a week or a month may be doing only a small percentage of its initial production and in a a. year be a small There have been exceptions to this but they are few How long a well will vIII prove profitable profitable profitable profit profit- able depends more upon the market and economical conditions than upon that its ability to produce pro- pro cuce duce oil has become exhausted from age There are in existence today oil wells that have been producing over sixty years and still making their oWners owners own oWn- ers a net profit over expenses There have been years when these wells did not produce because the low market for crude oil made them unprofitable It was an economical condition that prevented prevented prevented pre pre- vented their operation and not that there was no more oil in the sand When the market improved to warrant the wells being operated the oil was still found in them and In prof profitable Hable quantities There are many pools In the old oilfields oil oilfields oilfields fields of Pennsylvania West Vest Virginia t rd Ohio which were first developed in the early carl v years ears of the oil industry that hat are still valuable properties Some of th these se were reclaimed after being Abandoned so many years that scarcely scarcely scarcely scarce scarce- ly a sign was left on the surface to show that they had once been scenes cf In Industrial activity Meadows and pastures corn fields and potato patches covered the land where once once derricks stood thick and tradition says wells I I started at a rate o of o thousands of bar bar- and fortunes were were- won in a few months In a decade the only vestiges of former developments were a few rotting timbers an occasional cast Iron drive rive pipe sticking above the surface a to some former fortune or a dead hope and heaps of battered cans coffee pots and broken stoves to show the location of homes and boardIng boardIng boarding board- board Ing houses But Bu t again these deserted spots ha have ve become busy scenes and new operations operations opera opera- in them have added materially to the total output of petroleum Some opera opera-I of the more noticeable of these reclaimed or rejuvenated Pennsylvania pools are found in the Oil on Creek valley and andi at Tidioute Warren county the Bradford field and in Butler county These are the most worthy examples because the they are among the oldest of oil develop develop- in ments The Incentive for ther their was the prospect of higher prices ut more economical methods of handling the wells new schemes for recovering the oil by gas as air or water flooding of the sands and improved S 'S for pumping have made possible their profitable exploitation That further Improvements and experiments will as assist assist assist as- as the producer In the future is to be expected In Instances these old pools have yielded wells starting at from twenty to n ns as hi high h as seventy-five seventy barrels barrels bar bar- i daily The of ney tests has i proven that the orl original inal wells while I starting a at t a much higher initial production production pro pro- than the later ones failed tailed to obtain more than a small percentage of the tho oil contents of the sand Certain Certain tam tain concrete examples of this ore r re ri- ri called Two wells drilled feet apart In a pool with a very close sand were werf abandoned years ago as Their initial production had been fifty forty barrels respectively When the market started upward the owner drilled two offsets each feet awa away from the old holes and the new wells were vere consistent producers of four tour I ai-I six barrels for several months nd are still paying although with a smaller small small- small small-I er output I These examples could be multiplied several times times' but enough has been said saidI to suggest to oil men the of I handling their wells with the Idea that the they will not play out In their lifetime lifetime lifetime life life- time or that of the coming corning generation and the well they abandon today ml ht In some future time have a real value The oil men who have reclaimed the theold theold theold old pools have had to spend much money because of the carelessness of the original operators The former owners tool took only the flush production and as aa soon as a well declined abandoned abandoned abandoned aban aban- it for new excitements with no thought that another generation would seek to recover what they had left and generally believing that the oil supply In that particular pool had been exhausted or was near Its exhaustion The same careless thought for the future of the oil fields exists among those who are developing the new ones of today There seems to be a lack lacle of appreciation that the potential production production pro pro- of a it well or an oil property si sl I not represented by Its output for the first five or ten years When When the the opT opa op op- op- op T 1 a- a f realize that the wells should be under ordinary circumstances profItable profitable profitable prof prof- producers fifty years from now and possibly foi fo one ona hundred years Instead of figuring on a short period for their life there will be a marked Improvement In the conservation of our petroleum resources Union resources Union Oil on |
