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Show Big flat Oil Interest Renewed With Apparent Ruby Success! ( jj Prospects for renewed activity ac-tivity in oil exploration on the Big Flat structure west of Moab seemed assured this week as operators completed swabbing and began placing a pump on the Glen Ruby Big Flat No. 1 well. The well, originally drilled in 1957 by Pure Oil Co., was shut down by that company several years ago, and Mr. Ruby, Salt Lake City geologist, took over as operator on the unit. Mr. Ruby in turn brought in Venture Resources, Inc., Spanish Fork, Utah, as agent-operator, and the firm began some time ago the job of reworking the well. Originally operated as a producing pro-ducing well from the Missis-sippian Missis-sippian formation at a depth near 7,700 feet, the current operators plugged back and sought producton from the Paradox Salt formation neai, 6,153 feet. That zone had shown possibilities on the original or-iginal drilling operation, but production had not been attempted at-tempted at the shallower level. Earl VanVranken, consult-ting consult-ting engineer on the project for Venture, confirmed Saturday Sat-urday that following acidiza-tion acidiza-tion Friday night, the well began producing at the rate of 10 to 12 barrels of oil per hour during swabbing operations. oper-ations. The fluid was around ninety per cent oil, reports indicated, and operators feel confident that under the pump, somewhere around 200 barrels of oil per day can be expected from the eleven-year-old well. Specifically, production is being obtained from Clastic Break No. 13 in the Paradox Salt (listed as Break No. 16 by some geologists). Sustained Sus-tained production from the Paradox on the Big Flat has been difficult in the past, but operators are optimistic that the experience gained in dealing with specific problems prob-lems in production on past operations will enable them to make a commercial success suc-cess of the operation. Not far from Big Flat No. 1, Southern Natural Gas (is producing from the Cane Creek Marker zone in the Paradox Salt in Long Canyon, Can-yon, and the well, after six years is producing at a fairly fair-ly steady rate. Production at Southern Natural during the month of June this year was 4,039 barrels, bringing the total to that point in 1968 to 25,057 barrels, according tu reports from the Utah Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Com-mission. Total cumulative production to that point since the well was completed in 1962, has been nearly a half mlilion barrels. The formation where production pro-duction is being attempted on Big Flat No. 1 is considerably consid-erably shallower than the Cane Creek marker in the Paraodx. ! Pure Oil Co., unit operator at Big Flat during the 1950's. turned interests over to King Oil Co. and Mr. Ruby several sev-eral years ago. King is involved in-volved in the current work as an interest holder in the unit. Big Flat No. 1 is located just off the entrance road lo the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National park about one mile south of its junction with the Dead Horse Point road. a . -r " .... -- 4 : . " . V v. v--n.. ... ' ' -. v, " ' .,-v-.---v Pressure during swabbing forced drilling fluid, containing some 90 per cent oil, to shoot several hundred feet intc the pond near Big Flat No. 1. |