Show san juan basin gas production curtailed market availability an analysis of production statistics indicate what the development of 0 a 8 gas market has meant for the S san an juan basin of northwest new mexico although it was known in the parly early twenties that the san juan basin contained large gas reserves it was not until 1929 when gas lines were completed to durango and albuquerque and vicinity that development began on a very large scale even then the market demand was not great enough to encourage large scale scale exploration a tion and development and although gh gas was discovered in the blanco pool in 1926 it was not until 1946 that any large development oc cured most of the early gas production came from the fulcher kurti kurtz pictured cliffs pool discovered in 1927 and the barker creek dakota pool originally discovered in 1925 and developed beginning in 1941 in 1949 the federal power commission approved the application of or the el paso natural gas company to take gas from the san juan B basin a a I 1 n for california markets and development during the past tour four years has been at a ver very y rapid pace at the end of 19 1950 50 there were a total of producing ducin gas a s wells in the B basin aan cumulative production to the end of 1950 totaled MCF of gas this amount was marketed entirety entirely by the southern union gas company through its lines to durango and the albuquerque area the amount which was marin alus athe eted aztec dating back to 1921 the el paso natural gas company completed its line to california and started making delavene del ivene iverie in august 1951 production for 1951 jumped to MCF total cumulative production to january 1 1952 was MCF by the end of 1951 there were producing gas wells in the basin even greater development has taken place during daring the last three years by the end of 1953 there were 1181 gas wells producing total cumulative production to january 1 1954 was MCF when this is compared with the total cumulative production to the end of 1950 93 MCF it can be seen that over twice as much gas has been marketed during the last three years as during the whole previous production history dating back twenty four years by the end of 1953 deliver ability 0 of f wells in the field axy caught up with maket demand having the effect ot of curtailing per well production and causing a rapid slackening off 0 in the rate at which new wells were being drilled ien oven so to there w was as a total of wells completed through november of 0 1954 of which were producers producer a there are now slightly in excess ot of 1600 gas wells drilled which are capable of producing gas but not all of these are presently producing this has been caused by contract ural obligations which some operators have mada made with new proposed pipeline outlets not yet completed it has also been caused by some of the new nev S wells ells being located a long distances from pipeline connection so that ahr thre e has necessarily been some lag in new connections when the dellver deliver ability of producing gas wells in the basin fields began to surpass the present market demand deman d it was only natural that the need for would arise this Is necessary co eo that the available market is allocated to the total producing wells in such a way that each well will be able to produce its equitable share of the total gas produced the new mexico oil conservation Cons Conse ration commission Is at present making an exhaustive study of all the actors factors which will go into the po ration formula evidence and arguments were taken from all interested operators at hearings during the summer of 1954 |