`At this time the Petroleum Development Company had six wells producing just south of them which were all good producers with the exception of their No. 3 well which never produced much.
`Alma Jr. operated these wells from a Jack in conjunction with the Alma Company, and each well produced from 1,100 to 1,500 bbl. per month and showed no water, and gave no trouble.
`The first water appeared while the Associated Oil Company was drilling Red Bank No. 14 situated in the S. W. corner of their property, and showed first in P. D. No. 6 well, but as the A. 0. Co. were losing considerable water in drilling that well, no special attention was paid to it, as it only appeared in the P. D. No. 6 which was located just across the line, and this was expected so long as drilling was going on in the R. B. well, although its production all went to water during the drilling of the R. B. well, and gave considerable trouble to keep going.
`Upon the completion of the drilling of the R. B. No. 14 it was ex pected that water would soon disappear, but after waiting for a reason able length of time, long enough so that all lost water should have been exhausted, and the P. D. No. 6 as well as R. B. No. 14 both continued to pump water, the former all water, and the latter with only a showing of oil after perforation, it caused considerable alarm.
`After pumping this way for several months, the water appeared in P. D. No. 11 which is behind the hill from No. 6, then in P. D. No. 3 located west of No. 6, and remained so for about a year, when it again started to spread and reached P. D. No. 2, which well had been the best producer that company had, and the loss was felt by them very greatly.
`During all this time none of the wells of the Alma Jr. had shown any water, but within about four months after water broke into P. D. No. 2, it started to show in Alma Jr. No. 2 located just north of P. D. No. 2 and in a short time this well was all water, and had been from that time on showing no oil to speak of, but seemed to become a fountain head of water that was inexhaustible.
`Alma Jr. No. 4 was next to show water, situated in the canyon to the west of the others; this, however, after about all the other P. D. wells were pumping water, as the flow seemed to start at P. D. No. 6 and worked S. E. first, then spread south and drifted along west which at that time was the territory that was developed, and then slowly worked north again in the Alma Jr. wells in the canyon, first striking No. 4 and for some time Alma Jr. wells Nos. 2 and 4 were only effected,—the others
still producing oil in large quantities, while about all of the wells of the P. D. Company at that time were producing water, although Alma Jr. No. 1 and No. 3 are situated between wells Nos. 2 and 4 along the south line of the Alma Jr. property, showing that for some reason the water traveled around these two wells to reach Alma Jr. No. 3 and No. 2, and this continued along for about two years after water broke into the field even though No. 1 and No. 5 were the two best wells the Alma Jr. had and all during this time were producing heavily.
`About this time, which was some years after the drilling of these wells, attempts were made to try to trace its origin through the use of colors put into the different wells while pumping, and considerable time was spent in this, and the results were closely watched, and the tests so made would indicate that Alma Jr. No. 2 well seemed to be a distributing head to all of the wells, as colors placed into this well would be pumped out from all of the surrounding wells, while colors placed into any of the other wells were not so certain. This led the officials of the P. D. Company as well as the A. 0. Company to think this well the source of water supply, and while the writer was unable to explain why it was not, it seemed impossible to me that this well should continue to pump oil for two years after the water broke in before it started making water. If it was the fountain head and source of the supply, it would certainly have shown sooner in the well, but in a spirit of fairness to the others, I consented that work should be done on the well, knowing quite well it would not remedy the trouble, but feeling that something must be done at once as water was slowly backing into our property, and it would only be a short time until it was flooded out. Therefore, arrangements were made between the three companies interested and H. B. Guthrie, who at that time was introducing a method of his own for shutting off water, to take charge of the well and power to do anything he thought necessary to stop the flow of water, he at that time guaranteeing to shut off the water. His process was the tamping of sand with a line casing. However, after working for a long time on the well without results he decided it was not this well that was making the water, and he started on R. B. No. 14 but worked only a short time when work there was also discontinued.