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Show Uintah Basiim Oil Still Molds Spotlight Production Jumps At Equity's Ashley Valley Well; Carter Prepares To Drill Near Leeton EQUITY'S initial Utah oil discovery at Ashley valley two weeks ago started a chain reaction that will keep oil in the Uintah Basin news for some little time. Land leasing has taken on new life and possible sites for drilling operations are being eyed closely From Vernal, Equity Oil reports that its foundling well has jumped from 150 barrels to about 200 barrels a day despite the choking down of the outlet. Carter Oil, with a record of discovery at its Ruth Nelson No 1 is still working the immediate area, reasonably confident that a' field is in the making. If the general oil talk is to be taken for anything, Carter may move south of the Ruth Nelson for another shot at the Wasatch sands, reportedly the formation which produced pro-duced the good showing at the Nelson. The testing of the Ruth Nelson Nel-son has been an expensive process pro-cess for Carter. In the intricate operations preceding the tests the oil bearing sands were sealed off and Carter has tried repeatedly, repeat-edly, but unsuccessfully, during the last two months to blast its way back into the productive formation. i 1 i THE most recent development in the active drive for Basin oil is the announced intention to ' drill Section 21, about one and a half miles southeast of Leeton. The site is within the Indian land leased to Carter-Stanolind six months ago. Preparatory work is already underway with Carter Car-ter scheduled to do the drilling for the combination. A road leading to the site will be constructed soon and J. C. Zimmerman will begin work on a water well at the scene of operations as soon as the State Engineer gives the go ahead sign. Under the terms of the Indian lease Carter will drill to a minimum mini-mum depth of 7000 feet unless oil shows at a lesser level. Since the opening of the Rangely field all talk has been of the Weber sands. But in the Roosevelt area the Weber is estimated es-timated to be at a depth of about 14,000 feet. On the other hand, the Wasatch sands, which proved to be oil bearing at the Ruth Nelson No. 1, begin at about 6000 feet. Presumably the Wasatch Wa-satch will be the goal of drillers in western Uintah and Duchesne counties. Local oilmen view Equity's discovery at Ashley valley important im-portant from the standpoint of opening- up Uintah Basin fields. But Equity tapped the Weber sands and at a relatively shallow depth. Hence more importance is attached to the oil showings at the Ruth Nelson, since these were obtained in the Wasatch sands. The feeling is, therefore, that proof of oil in the Wasatch is more vital to the major portion por-tion of the Uintah Basin than discoveries in -the Weber sands which generally, lie deeper throughout northeastern Utah. Rumor was rampant in Salt Lake yesterday that the Vernal Gas and Oil company, drilling on the Neal Dome near Vernal, had encountered a good oil show somewhere in the 2000 foot sands. But investigation proved the statement to be raw speculation. specu-lation. The independent Vernal Gas and Oil is drilling at the Neal Dome, however, and in sands around 2000 feet, but reports re-ports of oil shows are being discounted. |