Show BIG SIX TEST AT MOAB PROVED OIL FIELD EXISTS HERE to the big six oil company organized by moab men five years ago to test the pennsylvanian formation on the moab anticline goes the credit for proving that an oil field exists in southeastern utah declared john CL howard president of the utah oil refining company in an address friday before the mining committee of the salt lake chamber of commerce mr howard expressed unlimited faith in the oil possibilities of southeastern utah and explained that this faith was founded on geologic deductions over has been expended by associated socia ted companies in utah drilling every formation from the down to the carboniferous in none of these tests although some great I 1 flows of gas had been developed had abeen found the carboniferous which science regards as the genesis of wrt sandstones suitable for reservoirs were pierced but no formations from which nature distills the oil As a result of this unsuccessful exploration work utah had won the reputation of having little or no chance for petroleum storage until in the bip six test on the moab anticline of the lower pennsylvanian hundreds of feet of rich shale measures were pierced this shale stated mr howard is so oily that even after it has laid j in the sunshine for months oil can be squeezed out of it break it up and one can smell the petroleum great credit belongs to the men who persisted with drilling of the big six well the deepest well from the standpoint of in the state the fruits of this work proved the existence of the long sought other parts of the state presented splendid structures for drilling but it remained for the big six well to prove that the lower pennsylvanian syl formations possessed the 1 sources from which oil is distilled and for the crescent eagle well near thompsons Thomp sons to prove that oil originated from these lower horizons in speaking of the shafer no 1 well mr howard said that regardless of the results of the swabbing operation on the hole exploration work will proceed uninterruptedly of course if commercial production is secured at 2025 feet as now seems probable development wil be greatly expedited companies now pursuing a watchful waiting policy with regard to southeastern utah will take steps to drill holdings and a greater activity will result but regardless of what happens the john L shafer no 1 well on the cane creek dome ill be drilled to the lower and objective horizons athis well can be put down another thousand or more feet the no 2 well on the cane creek dome will go down so will the no 1 well on the shafer dome nine miles down the river from the present cane creek test the elk ridge test will also be started and probably several others what can be expected in the way of progress can be gauged from the headway made at the shafer dome well where in a little over a month a depth of feet has been made in the cane creek pioneer well it took from april 10 to september 17 to drill approximately feet greater knowledge of the formations to be bored means greater progress that is why drilling the first well is always attended with such difficulty and expense we estimate that on our other wells we can drill 2500 feet or to the first sand for cost of the cane creek test has been several times this amount in event the lower pennsylvanian formations are proven oil bearing the elk ridge structure the first test of which it is estimated will cost will present tremendously interesting possibilities this structure embraces acres said mr howard if it proves to be an oil pool basing estimates on acreage on closure this dobie should produce more oil than california and california produces 25 per cent of the worlds entire output all equipment will have to be hauled a distance of miles from the railroad to elk ridge seven or eight of road costing jn the neighborhood of 17 or 18 are being constructed in the event southeastern utah structures are productive a pipe line will be built from the denver rio grande railroad to the various fields production would undoubtedly go to salt lake city for refining mr howard said in a reply to a question touching the matter of marketing and secondary production to denver in prefacing his talk mr howard made the explanation that only the of members of the chamber of commerce com nerce interested m mining and oil for information regarding the present situation had persuaded him to talk until actual production is gained neither he nor officials desire to make public addresses the public easily misconstrues what it reads or hears said mr howard we are in the business of producing refining and marketing oil and not in promotion or speculation we believe in the future of utah as an oil producing state we will contee unflaggingly our efforts to bring in real fields and are backing our faith with cur money |