Developments in North Mid-Continent in 1939

Abstract

Drilling activity in Kansas dropped about 14 per cent below the previous year and 48 per cent below 1937. The dry-hole percentage dropped from 27.2 per cent to 24.7 per cent. Initial oil production per well rose from an average of 1,208 barrels to 1,577 barrels, due in part to the increasing use of draw-down methods of taking potentials. More than 1.5 million barrels of new potential were added to the state and new highs in potential capacity were reached nearly every month. Wildcatting was practically at a standstill, except in northeast Kansas, where a dozen stratigraphically deep tests were drilled in the Forest City basin and north flank of the Chautauqua arch. Norton and Phillips are new oil-producing counties, but the discovery well in each is small and of questiona le commercial value. A gas discovery in Sherman County producing from the Cretaceous is important only because it is in a previously unproductive county. Many fields on the Central Kansas uplift were joined during the year, so that, although there were twenty-one oil and gas discoveries officially adopted during the year, there are fewer separate fields now than at the beginning of 1939. Missouri received the major share of the drilling phase of the Forest City basin play, which was one of the most active in the United States in 1939. Twenty-three deep wildcats and many shallow Pennsylvanian tests were drilled in the state during the year without success except for a few marginal gas wells in old areas. Most of the wildcats tested all possible producing formations to the Arbuckle group. Not all activity was confined to the Forest City basin as several wells were drilled in central and northeastern Missouri. Inasmuch as more than half the wells drilled were located on some type of surface structure, the failure of even one test to find a showing of free oil in pre-Pennsylvanian rocks confirms the opinion of those geologists who refused to be stampeded by the hysteria o the Forest City play. Six dry holes were completed in Nebraska in 1939, none of which is in the Forest City basin. The Pawnee Royalty Company's Boice No. 1, in Sec. 18, T. 1 N., R. 16 E., Richardson County, will probably be considered the discovery oil well of Nebraska, although at present it has not been successfully completed as a commercial producer. It found oil, November 1, at 2,276-2,281 feet in the upper part of the Devonian, which indicated commercial production. At present it is being deepened, and the nearest test to it appears to be a dry hole in the Arbuckle group. In South Dakota, wells in Union and Charles Mix counties were completed in pre-Cambrian rocks, adding much valuable stratigraphic information. There was a little drilling activity in the Iowa part of the Forest City basin, but no completions. A study of the stratigraphic data revealed by the drill in the area of this review during the past few years shows that many old published ideas must be abandoned completely and others must be radically revised. The geologic history of the area can be much better understood and new stratigraphic and structural problems are being cleared up.