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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1962)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 30. 1962 MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON FIRES REPORTED Salcm-Wfl-Seven small new forest fires were reported to the state forestry department Tuesday. The largest was a five -acre blaze in Douglas county. All were classed as man-caused, ahd all are re ported out. TOPS IN QUALITY! LOW IN PRICE Slanted Oil Well Drilling Revealed as Texas Scandal By PATRICK CONWAY Austin, Tex.-illPH-While the Billie Sol Eslcs case has been stealing the headline;, a scan dal has been building up in East Texas that could make Estes' manipulations look like a tempest in a petty cash box. This scandal involves the slanted drilling of oil wells. There is no clear indication of how long it has been going on, or how widespread it is or how much oil has been stolen. But it involves the East Texas oil field, the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, the nearby Hawkins field and Webster field. Webster field is southeast of the East Texas field, in Harris county or the city of Houston. Texas Ally. Gen. Will Wil son estimates the value of the oil stolen from slanied wells is in the millions of dollars. From 1895 through June 30, 1062, a total of 310.814 oil wells were completed in Texas. Most of them were drilled by the geometric rule that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points; in the case of oil wells, be tween the surface of the ground and the oil under the ground. Some oil operators learned how to strike oil even if there was none under the ground they had under lease. They did it by drilling at a slant from their leases until they tapped pools under near by leases. This is slanted or deviated drilling. Wilson has cut off some 500 wells in Easl Texas from pipelines because they are on leases that contain slant-drilled wells. According to Wilson, there are other forms of skulldug gery in the fields. One is the "granddaddy well." It is a producing well tied in by plastic pipes to a number of dry holes. Labor Day isuFlavor"Day irith fresh Oregon Fryers Give your Labor Day earing new freshness, flavor and fun. Golden-brown barbecued Oregon-grown fryers offer picnic or patio parties flavor at its freshest. Grown for prak flavor right here in Oregon these fryers are meaty, tender and easiest to prepare. Low in calories, yet high in protein and nutrition. Buy some today. took for his label your guoronfee of FRESHER FRYERS Oregon Fryer Commission Salem, Oregon this FRYER grown in OREGON JpJ hunger hurts . . . feSf please care .V.r -P TKeugH Fod Cfui.di packagat may nat b tnt IB iptfiAc ln dlviduall, you mot '! from Iht following daiiinotionii 7 Sends a Food Crusade Package Afflhotii'an Clfnbi tcuadof Ortc HnQ Kng Iran Vil liratl Holy Jrdan Kr PqVittor Twrlry Vietnam CAUL Food Crusndo New York 14. N. Y., or your local CARE office Here i $ to tend food packages In my name. (Addrtn) (Cily) (Sar) Make checks out fo CARE Inc. e A cup of milk, a bcwl of rica can bs a feast to millions who have never known the luxury of a full stomach. You can bring them nourish ment, new life end hope, by joining CARE' Food Crusade. A dollar bill is all it takes to deliver a complete package. Contents are mainly donated by the U.S. Government under the food-for-peace pro gram. But CARE odds items for nutritional bal ance, special country needs. A message of friendship, including your name and address, accompanies every package. Re cipients in orphanages, refugee camps, hospitals, disaster areas, schools and poverty stricken homes will know that you and America care. Your Dollars Help So Much SEND WHAT YOU CAN NOW The dry holes draw nil from the "granddaddy well" and are thus made to look like producers. The reason for this is that there is a le gal production quota for every oil well. Has Quota Legally, only the "grand daddy well" has a quota. But by attaching it to dry holes, the crooked operator multi plies the production 'Of the "granddaddy" by the number of dry holes he has it attached to. He upcs plastic pipe be cause metal delecting devices cannot delect it. Another form of crooked ness is to make a marginal well out of a good oil well by choking il. A marginal well produces less than 20 barrels of oil a day but it can legally produce every day in the year. On the other hand, a well that produces more than 20 barrels a day can produce ie gallly only eight days a month. It often pays to have a marginal well. The East Texas field con tains 19,110 wells that pro duce 120,000 barrels of crude oil a day. At the current price of $3.10 a barrel, this totals $372,000 a day. Almost 4.C00 of the wells are classafied as marginal. Investigate The Texas Railroad com mission started a secret in vestigation of slanted hole drilling last January. As the investigation grew and the knowledge of it became pub lic, 50 Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety Intelligence men and patrol men were sent to guard the East Texas wells. Wilson thought a guard necessary lo keep crooked operators from plugging wells with cement and prevailing their being checked for an illegal slant. Survey crews began to find slanted wells; the total dis covered is 77 and the investi gation is proceeding. Wilson has filed mils totaling $20 million against operators of slanied wells. So far, no tests have been made on property under lease by major oil companies. The major companies have, in fact, contributed to an attor ney generaTs fund to Investi gate wells operated by small, independent companies. This does not please inde pendent operators. G. H. (Pappy) Yoachum, a leading Kilgorc, T e x., independent operator, has protested the "strong-arm methods" in the investigation. "Evidence of possible col lusion httween certain mo nopolistic interests and cer tain slate agencies Is contin uing to accumulate," he said. Yoachum said major oil companies are the worst slanted hole drilling offend ers. He and three other inde pendent operators and a com pany they own have appealed lo U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy lo ' investigate the major oil companies for pos sible violation of anli- trust Iaws. The operators also have sued the majors (or $10 mil lion. Oil kepi Grcss. Upshur. Rusk, Smith and Cherokee counties in East Texas from feeling the full impact of the great depression in the 1930s. Now. the slanied hole drill ing investigation threatens to plunge the area into depres sion while the rest of the country lives in prosperity. Hundreds of oil workers are out of jobs. The state is losing thousands of dollars in tuxes and the situation may get worse. MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE Hedrick Students To Attend Meeting A moot inn will bo held (or nil studrnu pntrrin sev enth grade at Horirick Junior lliRh school Friday, Sept. 7, from 9:30 to 1 1 a.m. Students will receive books, schedules, and lockers, meel their teachers, see their class rooms, and have an opportun ity to ask questions nt that time. Students iho will be new to the school should Attend the meeting, as well as sev enth graders Itofctstrar ".!! should be done as soin a possible. For students In the I. one Tine, Howard. West Side, and Wilson areas the bus schedule will bo that normally in oper ation for the fl a m. schedule at lit drtck .Junior IHrIi school, For the orientation j mooting, the busses will opet ! ate one hour later than th j usual time, school officials j said, j Two Women Killed In Gresham Accident Gresham 'ITT Two mv ; identified women died here Wednesday m a collision be itween a car and a log truck The injured truck driver as tentatively Identified as 'Waller Vanbertl. i ANOTHER 279.95 Value Ansel Food 1279.95 Value SUlfif 3 be iH ii Ana yp n SI -Mm "r pi ' FREEZER :,7, Given Away Sept. 24 j 1 " 1 Paulen Gates Thrift Mkt. V J? lBrid9m.nBr0,BUy-likV - flQ. . It - n ...ib. trwl v ' FTt-,. 1 HWieaeri: i Mrs Golda 0rady 46S Freeman Road, Central Point JyUUUJ S li GrOUflO BCC Z -1 Winner of the 2-Way Radio jayjl Fruit Drinks - 41VQ 3 si00 White Star Chunk Style TUNA 2 Flat Tin Grape Jill 100 Pure GrapeJuice 24 oz. Can 00 4:1 arshmallows Pear Halves Potato Chips Grape Juice Mayonnaise Doumak White Modoc Fancy No. 22 Cans Laura Scuddsrs 49c Size Bag Flav-R-Pac Froien 12-oz. Cans lO-oi. pkg. for for Bordens Full Quart Jars Kosher Dili Nubbins Nalley's 22-oz. jar 33 Large Crisp Bunches White Spanish ONIONS Firm Ripe Tomatoes Local Male Peaches I IF a 1S? Bunch Romanic or Red Lettuce m urn my i!l lb. tSMff lb. lb. Bu. I PAULSENlSlGAfES 1 7 Prices Effective Thurs., Fri., Sat Limit Rights Reserved LOTS OF FREE PARKING Amana Motorola Easy RCA Victor Color Tappan Hoover
