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Show ! UTAH OILFIELD ! ! ft)T YET PROVED i J The Uiiited States Geological Survey ' has recently made an examination of a repotted oil field in Grand county, Utah, south and southeast of Green River, i but it ft-und the surface indications! for oil less promising than was expect- j ed and the development work up to date far from successful. I j The acea examined lies east of Green I '. River and south of. the Denver & Rio I Grande Railroad. It extends eastward as far as the middle line of R. 20 E., j j and south to the center line of T. 24 S. ! A report on the posibilities of finding: j oil in this field is now in preparation by C. F. Lupton, associate geologist of j the Survey. Prospecting for oil in this general ; region has been carried on ac intervals ! for over 20 years. About 1891 a well i was drilled to the depth of 1,000 feet i in thj northwestern part of Grand j County near the town of Green River. The result was not encouraging and no other development work was done jn-til jn-til lb99 and 1900, when three wells were drilled; two were locate I in Emery County west of Green River and the other in Grand County near Cisco. One of those in Emery County, situated about 10 miles southwest of Green River, yielded a little gas, and the other, 13 miles northwest of the same town, gave a trace of oil. The Cisco well yielded neitner gas nor oil. About 1910, owing to the finding: at several localities of rocks saturated with oil and asphaltum and also to the constant increase in the price of petroleum pe-troleum and its products, interest was again aroused in this field and during j the three last years several wells have ' been drilled. The results of chis work have furnished only doubtful encour-', encour-', agement to those who have been most i interested. Six ot these wells have I been drilled or are being drilled in the I area mapped bv the Geological Survey I and a summary of the results is given ! below. The Klondike well, in tiec. 26, T. 123 S., R. 19 E., was drilled by the j Moab Oil Co. of Utah to a depth of I about 700 feet. Gas was encountered j at three horizons in this well, but the j flows did not last long, as they were cased off. No oil was reported. The Collins well, in see. 20, T. 21 S., R. 17 . E., was drilled to a depth of more, than 2,100 feet. Small amounts of gas were encountered at four places in this well. A trace of oil, as indicated ; by the rainbow color on the water, accompanied ac-companied each flow of gas. The same j company, it is reported, has b;'gun ' another well about 1J miles farther ' east. The Levi No. 1 well, in sec. 25, J T. 23 S., R. 17 E., is reported to have j struck a little gas and a small quavi.y ! of oil. The Levi No. 2 well, in sec. 35, T. 22 S. ,. R. 17 E., was drilled to aj depth of aoout 1.500 feet without en- I countering oil or gas. A 400-foot hole ' has been drilled near the Levi No. 2, ! but no evidence ot oil or gas was found, j The Queen well, in sec. 18, T. 23 S., j R. 19 E., was drilled to a depth of 920 i feet. No gas was encountered, but a j "showing" of oil was obtained at 910 feet. About 45 or 50 miles southwest i of the town of Green River two wells ' are being drilled at the present time. ! Special attention has been given by ; Survey geologists to the study of the ' rock folds, as in this general region the i accumulation of oil is largely dependent ' on the presence of anticlines (upfolds) j in the sandstone beds which, as a rule, are the rocks containing the oil where j it is present. If oil and water occur in i a bed of sandstone which is overlain bv ! impervious beds, the oil tends to rise j above the water and to collect in' the ; top of the sandstone r.long the axis of i the fold. If suitable folds are not j present to retain it, it will be dissem- j inated in minute globules throughout a ! great masi of the sandstone and will j not collect at any one place in commer- j eial quantity. If such a bed of sand- stone is broken byjfaults which extend j to the surface, the oil disseminated ', through the rock adjacent to the fault ! plane may seep slowly into the opening ; and at length find its way to the sur- ! face as an oil spring or seep which re- j Bembles in every way an oil seep ris- ing from a commercial oil pool. In the recent examination it was found that! the strata in the area southwest of the ! town of Green River dip gently to the north and northeast. There are no . anticlines or domes in which large ! quantities of oil or gas might be ex- ' pected to collect, but a prominent fault zone, with a throw of a few hundi-ed feet, extends in a northwest-southeast direction across the field, and about 4 miles north of this fault there is an-; other which extends but a few miles on j each side of Green River. One oil seep (known locally as "Goin's seep") is on this fault near the south boundary of T. 21 S., R. 16 E., and the rocks in the immediate vicinity are fairly well saturated with petroleum. Other faults of greater or less throw were also abserved. |