Developments in North and West-Central Texas in 1946

Abstract

In 1946, the north and west-central Texas district contributed 102 discoveries, including 21 outposts, 2 shallower-pool tests, 4 deeper-pool tests, 1 field-development well providing a discovery, 28 new-pool wildcats, and 45 new-field wildcats. This is comparable with a total of 125 discoveries in 1945. In 1946, 3,007 wells were drilled, of which 653 were exploratory. Compared with the 1945 record of 2,240 wells drilled, including 468 wildcats, there was an increase in drilling activity of 26 per cent. In all, 57,840,000 barrels of oil were produced in north and west-central Texas during 1946, compared with 54,283,000 in 1945, an increase of 3,557,000 barrels. The production of 11,946,000 barrels of oil from Wichita County continued it as the leading producing county of the district. The more important developments in the district in 1946 were: (1) the discovery of the Manning-O'Connor, Caddo limestone, field in southwestern Stephens County; (2) the discovery of several fields in Throckmorton County through the use of the reflection seismograph; (3) the discovery of Strawn production in east-central Haskell County; (4) the discovery of the Eskota field, southeastern Fisher County, producing from a Canyon reef; and (5) the general shift of explorational activity to that part of the district west of the axis of the Bend arch. Of the 102 discoveries and extensions made in 1946, there were: 8 from the Ordovician, 4 from the Mississippian, 23 from the Bends, 28 from the Strawn, 9 from the Canyon, 29 from the Cisco, and 1 from the Cretaceous. The use of subsurface geology and the reflection seismograph proved most effectual in the discovery of oil in this district.