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Show Rotary Is Common Type Of Drill Used On Plateau u p When a tourist glances out of his automobile window as he drives along any any one of the highways on the Colorado Plateau, he may see an oil well dulling outfit hard at woik in search of black gold Ordinarily the toiuist gives little to the mechanics of oil well dulling for it is something about which he knows very little. Drilling rigs, poweied by steam, gas or gasoline, are of two general kinds' cable tool and rotary. The cable tool pounds its way down through eaith and rock much as punching a hole m the ground with an lion bar. The rotary dulls its way down as one might dull a hole by rotating the point of a screw duver against a piece of soft wood Rotary rigs account for most of the drilling footage today. The rotary is complicated in detail, but fail ly simple in principle A cable from a huge dium, or winch, runs to the top of the dernck, passes through a heavy crown block, pulley called a then down to a sort of block arrangement called a travelmg block. To the bottom of the tiaveling block is attached a hook with a swivel joint which supports the kelly. The kelly is a 40 foot hollow steel forging, either square or hexagonal m cross section. It passes down through a similarly shaped opening in the rotary table, which is a flat, horizontal steel casting resting on bearings in the derrick floor. The rotary table is connected to the power source by a chain drive, and as it rotates it causes the kelly to rotate, too. To get the picture, force a hexagonal pen. cil through a piece of carboard. If the cardboard is rotated the pencil turns, yet the pencil can be moved up and down through the hole. Below the kelly comes the drill pipe and drill collar, and below them, the drill bit Most drill pipe is made in 30 foot sections with threaded ends roughly the same as water pipe. As the bit drills down the kelly slow ly sinks through the opening in the rotary table. When it can sink no farther it is lifted out, uncoupled, and a new section of drill pipe is added. Eventually the string of pipe may be two or three miles long. i after-thoug- V &- - ?V-- Wr- - ''; nW -' ' ' i" - f Xv 5k Vr r 9. and-tack- ? 1 &? A fZrSUi. & ie A .iv.v. V V v EASY ACCESS to Moab will soon be available across the new Colorado River bridge, replacing the single-lan- e budge shown in the rear. The new bridge already is being used by trucks hauling uranium ores to mills. Picture shows progress of construction late last jear. Prospectors Uproot Petrified Forest The virgin forest of petnfied trees containing some of the largest specimens yet found in Nevada and located about 150 miles north of Reno on the road leading from Gerlach to the old mining camp of Leadville are being sabotaged, according to a report by Nevada state park chaiiman, Thomas W Miller, to Governor Chailes H Russell. In reporting to the governor. Chairman Miller said, some of the largest and most extensive of the petrified tree deposits give evidence of having been uprooted by bulldozers and other power machinery in an endeavor to either dislodge the specimens or to perform the necessary location work on mining claims that have only been taken up there within the last six months. Craters 30 feet in diameter and 10 to deep have been gouged out by power machinery in several locations, and smaller petrified specimens give evidence of having been systematically despoiled In his report Chairman Miller sought that a ruling from proper legal authority to asceitam whe-the- r the filing of a mining claim on what is public domain or state lands permits those filing to violate our antiquity as have been looted and despoiled in that particular area. H. L. Hunt, Nation's Most Successful Oil Man Probably the most successful individual oil operator m the United States is H. L. Hunt of Dallas, Texas, according to an article in the Oct 30, 1954 issue of The Oil News and Uranium Digest. The article was written by Leonard Bedillion, another oil man. Until about 1924 or 1925, Hunt had been in Montana ranching New Chart Available From School of Mines The Colorado School of Mines Research Foundation has recently published a correlation chart of uranium bearing minerals which it is believed will become an item of general interest among everyone concerned with any phase of the uranium industry. The chart measures 50 inches by 32 inches and contains over minerals 16 0 uranium-bearinwhose location on the chart discloses their chemical composition. The chart is divided vertically into chemical-radica- l columns, and horizontally into colored chemical-elemen- t bands. There are 15 different color bands on the chart for greater visual ease of correlation. Each mineral is contained in a box m which are given a sufficient number of the minerals characteristics for definite identification. Powder River Dredging Co. has The charts can be obtained from halted opeiation of Oregons only the Colorado School of Mines Regold dredge and the states prin- search Foundation, Inc , Golden, cipal gold producer since Woild Colorado at $5 per copy, postage War II has shut down. prepaid. 15-fe- g Allis Chalmers Ingersoll-Ran- d e GMC Diesels o DuPont Explosives o General Mining Supplies with a brother. Then he went to Arkansas where he sought an opportunity to go into the oil business He did by getting hold of a plot of ground 33 feet wide oy 660 feet long from a scalper There were twenty such leases in a ten acre tract, and each of the lessees drilled two wells on his own little lot. Some produced oil but soon went dry. All except Hunts, that is. Most of the holders of the small leases had been so optimistic they had built storage tanks on their properties in anticipation of the gushers they hoped would be brought in. Hunt did likewise. And it wasn't long before he was renting all of the storage tanks on the property surrounding his own lease which, incidentally, was right in the middle of the ten acre plot Hunt was pumping 120 barrels of oil per day at $2 As b ts wear out and have to be replaced the whole string has to be taken out of the hole. This is done by diconnecting the kelly and setting it to one side, then raising the pipe and bi caking or disconnecting it at every third or fourth joint, depending on the height of the derrick. Oil Reserves Nearby Moab is located neai the center of what is known to be one of the largest remaining oil reset "s, known as the Great Salt Basin. Much exploiation has tone on in the past, with favorable signs of the discovery of a gieat oil and gas field m the near futuie One well, dulled by Shell Oil Co probably will be a big pioducer. Moab, Itah, was given its name from the biblical countiy, Moab, known as The far countrv, and a land of flat topped mountains. The name was given to the eaily settlement in Grand alley when a postotfice was established in about 1830. Smiths Laboratory Assaying Radiation Equipment Babbel Counters Uranium Analysis Specialist Coal Mining Continues J. Earl Smith Coal mining in the northein end a barrel. hen Hunt had stored 4 000 barrels of oil he went to Bedillion, then a civil engineer, oil buyer and scout for a pipe line. Although the deal with Bedillion was not completed, Hunt did sell his oil to a pipe line company. Bedillion writes that Hunt somelease time later bought a about six or seven miles south of the shoestring properties on which he had made initial strike Again he struck oil, had a little bad luck with sanding (blocking of the flow) but eventually the second well was classed as a producer, too about 2,500 barrels per day. Fiom then on it was the same story for Hunt It seems that every well he drilled was a producer, although some were pumpers and he sometimes used poor judgment m his operations. As explained by Bedillion, Hunt was an introvert who never sought advice from anyone, therefore he sometimes pulled boners. During the depression years Hunt stepped up drilling operations, moving into Louisiana and Texas where new discoveries had been made. His stupendous successes continued, baffling operators and making news headlines constantly. When he had as many as 90 offset wells to drill at the same time, right in the middle of the 1932 depression, he put m his own pipeline gathering system and marketed his own oil. At that time he had wells producing 10,000 barrels daily. There are many reports, says the article, that Hunt has accumudollars from his lated a oil operations. Wrote Bedillion: I have known many men with a fine run of to run a few dollars up good luck into one to twenty million dollars but very few held on to it long They would lose it as fast as they made it. As we used to say m the oil business, it takes luck to win a million and brains to hold onto it. In all the years I have known him (Hunt), I have never known him to pull a fast one, nor have I ever heard anyone challenge his integrity. He was the same man at $100,000,000 as he was at $100,-00We could use a few more like him in any line of business. of Grand County, Utah, piobably will continue to be of much import, ance to the area, according to miners of the district. The quest for gold and silver has also touched Moab and both have been found in small quantities. Phone 2927 Moab Utah Fly With The Byrds! BYRD AVIATION COMPANY e CHARTER FLIGHTS o AERIAL SIGHTSEEING o RIM FLYING AIR AMBULANCE half-bdlio- n CATE EQUIPMENT COMPANY 35 First North Moab Utah 0. We Specialize In Flying For The Uranium Industry. PIPER & BEECHCRAFT Dealers Sales Maintenance Instruction PHONE 20R2 MOAB o UTAH |
