SCOUTING OIL and gas companies operating in any territory are kept informed of the field developments by their scouting department. It is the duty of this department to keep in touch with the field operations of other companies from day to day and report same so that the maps may be kept up to date and the information properly filed.
Scouting may be divided into two classes, the first comprised of territories previously drilled or abandoned, and secondly, the scouting of territory where development work is being carried on. In both cases it is carried on in conjunction with the geo logical work.
When an attempt is made to operate in a field that has several unsuccessful or small wells, or in a territory that is an old one but new to the producer, a scout is assigned to gather the infor mation on that field. Equipped with the necessary maps the first step is to find all drilling, pumping and abandoned wells as well as dry holes and locate them properly on the farm map.
The various facts about the wells are to be ascertained and the following points should be investigated: The name of the parties operating as well, as the name of the contractor is an important point, as these people may be interviewed and give valuable information and data on the well and perhaps furnish a record of the well. The time the well was drilled and the pre vailing price of oil at the time is of value, as it may be found that owing to a possible low price of oil the wells were not at the time commercial propositions but at a higher price for the oil the same wells might have been of value.
Information regarding the following points may lead to a clue as to the wells' probable value: If the well was pumped, how long and why was it abandoned, was the well shot and with how many quarts of nitro-glycerin? The size of the shot may indicate the thickness of the sand, as it is customary to place the shell containing the glycerin right against the sand, and the length of the shell will be determined by the thickness of the sand. In this connection the size of the hole at the sand must be known. A shooting table will show the length in feet a certain number of quarts of nitro-glycerin will occupy in a shell of a certain diameter.
If a well was shot it may indicate that the drillers thought well enough of the showing of oil or gas in the sand to shoot it. Whether the sand contained water or not should also be deter mined.
If the operators or drillers cannot be located or they would not give out the required data, the land owners in the vicinity of the wells may be able to give some information. Such infor
mation must be carefully analyzed, as it may prove to be a biased opinion. Land owners are as a rule optimistic about the oil and gas possibilities in their neighborhood and thus may be giving only their point of view. Small and commercially unimportant showings may look large to the non-oil man. In case of gas propositions the general information obtained from such sources gives the pressure of the gas and seldom its volume.. A clear distinction must be had between gas pressure and volume.
Large gas wells are seldom shot, so if a well was torpedoed to the volume of gas, its original size must have been small. It may be learned whether when drilling into the sand the gas volume was large enough to prevent drilling the hole wet, and in the case of fair-sized gas wells, water cannot be poured down the hole to assist in the drilling, but it must be lowered in the bailer or no water used at all.
The second class of scouting may be referred to as routine work. In the Western States this department is on a compara tively high scale. The entire territory in which the operators are interested is divided into several districts with a scout in charge of each. It is his duty to keep the company informed as to the new locations that are being made by others, the rigs built, drilling wells, the depth at which they are drilling, the time the well is expected to be completed. The scout should be present when the wells are drilled into the sand or if his duties require his presence elsewhere he is to notify his firm so that someone else may be sent out to watch the well. The scout must also be on the lookout for any leasing that may be going on, also to keep in touch with the production of the various wells or leases. Scouting reports are generally made each week.
From the foregoing it will be noted that a scout must be a good oil man himself, so that he may be able to pass judgment on his findings, must be familiar with the sands and make a good interpretation of the showings of oil or gas in them and also be able to understand and verify any statements that are heard.
Access should• be had to gauging instruments, as the oppor tunity to gauge a tank or determine the size of a gas well may present itself at any time, therefore he must become familiar with the methods of gauging.
The scout must be familiar with maps and have a general idea of surveying and needless to say understanding of geology is important.