THE HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING
PART THIRTEEN - PURE

Chapter 39  -  Acquisition Through Earth Science

Page 129 missing

... of the Houston Division. In June and July, 1926, Pure hired the McCollum Exploration Company to do a month's refraction work in the Gulf Coast on an experimental basis. In September of 1926, Pure entered into a long term contract with the Geophysical Research Corporation to make extensive refraction surveys of the Gulf Coasts of Texas and Louisiana. This was GRC Party #3 under the direction of Ben B. Weatherby. In May, 1927, the Pure Oil Company operations were expanded into two seismic parties. GRC Party #3 went to East Texas, while Party #4 remained on the Gulf Coast. Pure was offered a second party chief to handle Party #4, but Pure declined, stating that Ben Weatherby should run both crews for them. Pure supplied Weatherby with an extra car, in which to travel back and forth between the two parties.

The instrument observers on the two Pure parties included Carol Rosaire, C. T. MacAllister, John Crowell, Walter Bibb, A. L. Smith and M. D. Andrus. The computors used in 1926 and 1927 included Alfred Wolf, Francis Campbell and Roy Lay. The work of Geophysical Research Corporation's Party #3 and Party #4 in the Gulf Coast resulted in the discovery of the Lost Lake salt dome in Chambers County, Texas, and of the Creole salt dome in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Since the Creole Prospect extended out into the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico, additional work in later years including a reflection survey, was needed to fully establish the location and extent of the salt uplift. These two GRC parties worked in the following Texas counties between September, 1926, and September, 1927; Harris, Galveston, Brazoria, Liberty, Chambers, Wharton and Fort Bend. They also worked in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

Party #3, after moving to East Texas in May of 1927, worked in Freestone, Smith, Woods, Anderson, Henderson and VanZandt counties. Some work was done in May and June locating East Texas salt plugs. In time it was learned that these interior salt domes are not very often associated with oil traps. In July of 1927, Ben Weatherby's Party #3 found the Van oilfield for the Pure Oil Company. Refraction work on Van continued on into August. In the latter part of the survey, Chief Observer C. T. MacAllister spent a considerable amount of time attempting to obtain seismic reflections from the Van structure. The regular refraction program would be carried on from early morning until mid-afternoon of each working day. The junior observer would then leave the field and head for the office with the day's refraction records, while MacAllister and the shooter stayed behind and attempted to record reflections until twilight. "Boots" MacAllister says he enjoyed the doubleday. There was a challenge and a special excitement about endeavoring to obtain the elusive and mysterious reflection impulse. The reflection results thus procured were inconclusive as to quality and reliability.

The Pure Oil Company contracts on both GRC crews expired in September of 1927 and field operations were allowed to come to a halt. Ben Weatherb returned to the University of Pennsylvania late in September to finish his doctorate in physics. By early 1928 Pure Oil had again engaged the services of a GRC party, this time under Party Chief C. T. MacAllister. This was a water job, working the swamps of Louisiana from boats. Dr. J. H. Crawford and A. L. Smith headed GRC crews for Pure in 1928, 1929 and 1930. It was finally decided to detail the Van structure in East Texas with refractions. This was done by Dr. Crawford's party shortly before the discovery weIl was drilled.

Pure obtained about 80% of the total productive acreage on the Van structure, which turned out to be a major oilfield. The remaining acreage was leased to Texas, Sun, Shell and Humble. The five companies went together to form the first important "Unit Plan of Operation" in the United States by contract signed November 1, 1929.

In the 1920s, the Geological Department of the Pure Oil Company was  finding oil both with and without the benefit of geophysics. Pure acreage on the Sweet Lake salt dome in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, was taken on the basis of a bubbling gas seep in the middle of the lake. Pure built a floating platform in the middle of Sweet Lake in January, 1925, and proceeded to drill what was in those days a deep test. In June of 1925, at a depth of 4502 feet, enormous gas pressure caused a blowout of the weIl. An immense crater formed under the water, into which the derrick, boiler and machinery fell and was lost. A second well found the initial production on Sweet Lake from a Miocene sandstone at a depth of 5905 feet in October of 1926. The Bosco salt dome in St. Landry and Acadia Parishes, was discovered by Pure in 1929, employing a GRC refraction party. In 1930 and 1931 Bosco was surveyed for the Pure by a torsion balance crew; then detailed by seismograph dip-shooting in October of 1932. In 1933 a contract was entered into between Pure and the Superior Oil Company of California under which Superior assumed the drilling obligations for a half interest in the Bosco leases of Pure. The first production, in 1934, came from an 8916 foot completion. Bosco is a very deep dome, the first salt having been encountered in the year 1960 at a depth of 13,742 feet.

The Pure Oil Company discovered oil in Midland County, Michigan, in March, 1928, and later acquired producing acreage in other oilfields on the same trend. During the next twenty years, Pure drilled seven hundred core holes in Michigan to add vital information to the surface and subsurface geological maps. From 1940 to 1947, Pure had added four fields in Michigan; Winterfield in Clare County; Reed City in Osceola County; Headquarters in Roscommon and Clare Counties, and Beaver Creek in Crawford County.

The Louise field in Wharton County, Texas, was discovered by GRC refraction seismograph in June of 1928. The records were not conclusive but had sufficient interest to provoke Pure to assemble a lease block of about 8500 acres. Pure feIt this was a sufficient investment at the time and it was only after other geophysical information was obtained that a test weIl was drilled. Torsion balance was employed in 1929 and 1930. A reflection seismic survey was finished in the fall of 1932. The drilling of this particular well proved difficult but was finally brought into production after many months of effort, early in 1934. The Dickinson oilfield, 14 miles northwest of the city of Galveston in Galveston County, was likewise discovered for Pure by a Goephysical Research Corporation refraction party in the year 1929.

Refraction leads, which were more or less ignored at the time of the GRC survey in 1928, were reworked and restudied at the West Ganado field, Jackson County, Texas, in 1933. The acreage was found to be held by another company, but when the lease block was abandoned in 1938, Pure sent Geotechnical Corporation reflection crew under Party Chief James E. Jett to work the area. The discovery weIl was drilled by Pure in 1940.

The Gueydan oilfield in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, showed a refraction abnormality when shot for the Pure by GRC in 1929. A reflection seismic survey followed in 1934, showing a closed structure. Pure, Magnolia and others leased the area in 1934. Magnolia drilled the discovery well in 1935.

Most of the seismograph reflection work that has been done for the Pure Oil Company has been performed by the Geophysical Service Incorporated, under Party Chiefs Roland Beers and Henry Salvatori and by Geotechnical Corporation under Supervisors Roland Beers and Jimmie Jett. The very first geophysical discovery ever made in the state of California was made by Pure in 1932. It was the Chowchilla Gas Field in Madera County. Henry Salvatori was the Party Chief and Dean Walling the computer, working for Geophysical Service. The discovery weIl was drilled in 1935.

Ira Cram's Oklahoma Division found large quantities of oil for Pure; not ...

Page 132 missing