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Show interest Focused on Oil & Gas Drilling Activities Three states Utah, Idaho and Wyoming suddenly find themselves in the 'midst of an intriguing campaign of a mixture of drilling and oil & gas leasing centered in and around Evanston, Wyoming; Pocatello, Idaho and from Utah's Coalville area north to Bear Lake. National attention has been focused on two recent and important oil and gas discov-J discov-J ery wells. Some say the most significant that has happened in the Rocky Mountain states in a decade. In 1975, American 3 Quasar Petroleum Company of j Denver, along with working 3 interest partners, drilled what J was at the time a very remote drilling prospect in the Pine-J Pine-J view'area about 12 miles east of Coalville in northeastern Utah in the northern reaches J of the Uinta Mountains. Soon j after, a second well confirmed the oil production as well as J also making a discovery in a 1 new horizon. To the end of 2 1975 the two wells in the J Pineview field had produced 3 225,000 barrels of oil, and in J early April 1976, the field was I producing about 1,100 barrels of oil per day from the two completed wells. Shortly after the initial Pineview discovery, Amoco Production of Denver announced an-nounced it would drill a remote exploratory well 14 miles northeast of the town of Evanston and about 40 miles north-northeast of Pineview. Then it happened. Amoco 'recoyered gas and gas condensate within 497 feet of "pay" sand as calculated from electric log analysis. The discoveries triggered oil and gas leasing all the way from Montana to southern Utah with the most intense activity located in the Evanston Evans-ton area, in the general vicinity of Pocatello and up and down the Utah state-line through Randolph, Woodruff and Coalville. Initially, federal lands of several million., acres were involved, now extensive leasing of private and state land also is proceeding. Idaho, which doesn't have any oil production, suddenly found itself involved in leasing of boom proportions in its eastern east-ern counties. Geologists and geophysi-cists geophysi-cists call the "overthrust belt" one of the largest geological provinces in the world. It extends through western Canada Can-ada and moves through western Montana, eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and through Utah eventually extending ex-tending into southern Nevada. Generally speaking, the province prov-ince is distinct and one can easily note the features on a world globe. In detail, geologists geolo-gists term the structure also as one of the most complex in the world. It is characterized by overlapping "overthrust" faults and thrust shields. In plain language, visualize a stack of "hotcakes" flipped over or think of a stack of overlapping hotcakes piled up. Then think of drilling a well through these groups which are repeated several times. Geologists have quite a time from getting "lost" while on one of these operations. The Amoco Production well recovered the gas condensate in the Nugget sandstone at about 7,450 feet, but drilling continues to a projected 14,500 feet. It could go even possibly deeper. The Pineview area oil production is from Nugget at around 10,000 feet and its overlying Twin Creek formation, forma-tion, roughly from 8,500 to 9,500 feet., Current drilling reports car- ry 8 exploratory drilling wells in the general vicinity of the i southwestern Wyoming Amo- , co well. Another 7 wells are " listed as nearing initial tests. Some 16 locations have been a scheduled for drilling. In Utah's Summit County, 6 wells are drilling, all below depths i of 6,000 feet. ; One well is , drilling at 17,000 feet in the Pineview area. Three locations are scheduled in the county, a An exploratory test well is to be drilled in Bonneville Coun- ty, Idaho and locations are 4 expected to be drilled east of - Pocatello and in the Bear Lake " region of the state. Drilling is i also expected in Utah's Rich a and Morgan Counties, which will be the first oil and gas ' tests ever in these counties. 4 In proximity, Salt Lake City , has the distinct advantage since it is less than 100 miles from the activity. Location of a major oil refineries as well as existing pipelines, assures " future promise for the econom- ic well being of the region. |