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Show Big Future Seen For County Oil Major Development Started Success of the Upper Valley oil field Is now assured. Jack H Edwards of Denver, district drilling engineer for Tenneco Oil Co., told an Escalante audience recently. In the last two months production at the field has increased from 3000 to 5000 barrels of oil a day. Through the seven years that Tenneco has been drilling in this area their men have seemed reluctant to discuss company operations. Now, however, Mr Edwards said that the company spokesmen are proud to announce triumph over great difficulties. Drilling in this area is expensive Since January 1, 1962, Tenneco has spent seven million dollars at the Upper Valley field and another seven and a half million dollars In other locations In this vicinity. Other oil companies have spent comparable amounts. Part of the difficulty is due to the rough terrain where road building is hard, but it Is mainly due to the porous nature of the earth in this Colorado River drainage area It seems thst through the ages of time, earth strata have been tilted exceedingly and the river and its many tributary canyons have cut to such depths as to drain the earth of its natural pressures. Cohesion has been lost. TJhere are empty pockets through which it Is difficult to maintain a course of the drill To bring the cuttings of esrth and rocks up through the bore hole as the drill cuts downward, a liquid composed of water and bentonlte, called "mud" by the men. Is used to circulate the cuttings upward. The porous rocks often cause circulation to be lost, necessitating frequent delavs. As long as six months has been spent In drilling one well. That was before a better process was discovered The Isst well took onlv two weeks to complete. Drilling for oil In Upper Valley begin In 1948 when the Calllornia Oil company succeeded in bringing oil to the surface from a depth of 9000 feel It was thick, black, sticky stuff that they dumped into a pool, not being able to market It. When California Oil Co. moved out, Its manager offered the oil to local authorities to put on their dirt roads, but means of doing this seemed to be lacking. To eliminate the lake of oil as a fire hazard In the forested a rea, It was finally burned. When Tenneco began drilling In Upper Valley in 1962. they encountered so much mechanical difficulty with its first well that thev abandoned it With their second well, they found oil at a depth of about 6000 feet In the Kaibab formation and began pumping 300 barrels of oil a day. Drilling the first five wells was slow and expensive. Company engineers set about trying to find a better technique, lliey tried mixing compressed air with the liquid "mud." Results were unsatisfactory The mixture foamed out of the drill pipe like pressurized shaving cream, only blacker and greasier, spewing over the men and machinery. Then Joe Murray, engineer in charge, thought of introducing com pressed air at a depth of 2000 feet or so, and the "parasite pipe" technique was born. It involves fastening a string of small pipe to the casing around the drill pipe and letting It ride down with the casing for 2,161 feet. Compresed air is then pumped down the smaller pipe. It forms an emulator with the cuttings and thereby lessens the weight at the bottom of the hole, thus reducing the danger of lost circulation Tenneco spokesmen Insist that "all the men" contributed to the successful working of the plan. At any rate the parasite technique works. Drilling on Ten neco's Upper Vallev Well No Is) was begun on November 4 It was completed on November 19, fifteen days later. Other wells will now be drilled by the same method. Eleven wells are now In operation. The oil Is all piped to the main site near Well No. 2, the original producer, where it Is "cracked" that is, it Is subjected to heat and chemical action that demulsifies It and rids It of water. It la then down through the hills flped Ive miles to two large tanks near the highway From there It is hauled In tankers to the Phillips refinery at Woods Cross, north of Salt Lake. Mr. Edwards said that his company intends to continue drilling and that other companies have plans for further drilling. A company from St. Louis expects to begin Its Upper Valley Federal Well No 1 this winter According to Mr. Edwards, engineers estimate that the Upper Valley field contains thirty million barrels of oil, that It should last about thirty years of normal production. Tenneco is now paying royalties of $500,000 a year to the U.S. agencies controlling the public lands on which It operates. It is one of the largest single taxpayers In Garfield County. Though only twenty years old. it is the fourth largest industrial firm In the US |