University Daily Kansan, February 19, 1981
Page 9
KIRK TINDALL/Kansan staff
The setting sun silhouettes an oil pump in Coffey County near I-35. According to state officials, Kansas oil production is increasing after a 20-year slump.
Kansas' oil industry revitalized, growing
KIRK TINDALL Staff Reporter
The Kansas oil industry, which began early this century, is growing again.
In 1887, Standard Oil built its first oil refinery in Kansas and began selling "Perfection" kerosene for 15 cents-a gallon.
That was cheap enough to underselk the kerosene imported from the East coast and it paved the way for Kansas to become one of the major oil-producing states.
kansas oil was close to the surface, and primitive drilling methods made it a prime target for exploration.
In 1896, Kansas produced 114,000 barrels of oil. By 1956 the state's oil production had more than doubled to an all-time high of 256,000 barrels a day.
During the late '50s and '60s, foreign oil began to erode Kansas' share of the oil market. While Kansas oil was still easy to reach, the older fields were not large producers and had become expensive to operate.
But today, Kansas is enjoying a resurgence of exploration because of a steady rise in the price of world oil.
While Kanans may suffer at the gas pumps because of the high price of crude oil, new exploration in the state may provide jobs, and if Gov. John Wickman's tax approval is approved, it will add some $199 million to the state's coffers.
by less than 1 percent, the first increase since 1973. Last year's production figures showed an increase of 5.25 million barrels per day at Petroleum and Gas Corporation said.
In 1979, oil production in Kansas rose
According to Leiker, drilling has tripled in the last seven months.
The revitalized interest in Kansas oil wasn't generated by deregulation as much as the steady rise in oil prices, Leiker said.
"Only 20 percent of Kansas oil was regulated anwav." he said.
Most of the oil coming from Kansas is from stripper wells, Leiker said. A striper well is one that produces less than 10 barrels of oil a day for a year.
While producers won't get many
fruits from those forests in Kansas, the
oliv is relatively easy to find.
Floyd Preston, KU professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, attributes the high success rate in Kansas to improved drilling methods, better geological methods used to locate pools and the fact that most of the oil fields in Kansas have already explored.
"They know where the oil is," Preston said. "They're just trying to find small pools between wells."
One drilling firm enjoying a 75 to 85 percent success rate is the Wells-Battle stein Co. of Houston. They are exploring on 20,000 acres of land in the Chaco Valley fields that surround the old Standard refinery in Southeast Kansas.
According to David Shields, an engineer for Wells-Battistein, the company is sinking three wakes a week and would like to drill five or six.
Development rigs are used to set pipe in producing wells and exploration drills are used for test drilling.
The 20,000 acres that are being developed by Wells-Battlestein represent only 5 percent of the land available for exploration, Shields said.
the impact of the resurgence of exploration has already been felt in Sedan, the County seat of Chataqua.
"Sedan has a population of 2,000 and we already have trouble with housing." Shields said. "It's the largest town in the county. We have been bringing people in to work for us and we have a strong sense of Independence to find a place to stay."
Most of the oil Wells-Battlestein is trying to find is buried in sandstone 1,000 to 1,200 feet under the surface. It is also at anywhere after 300 feet." Shelds said.
"This isn't your 50 barrels a day oil.
What you get first is water, 250 to 300
barrels of it."
After the water is pumped out of the well "the flush oil" comes. Flush oil, Shields said, means that the well is pumping 8 to 15 barrels a day.
After the flush oil, the first to 45
produces only five litres of barrels a day.
Only five litres be barrels a day.
The oil pumped from the sand hills of Chautauqua County sells for $40 a
barrel, according to Shields. A barrel is 42 gallons.
"After windfall taxes, the producer gets about $13.00 per barrel," he said.
Even if the pay-off is big the cost of drilling in Kansas is high.
"You have to have a long production life to pay for the cost of drilling and numming." he said.
The wells in Chautauqua County should produce oil at a rate of five to eight barrels a day for at least 10 years, Shields said.
To drill a "bole" in Chautauqua County cost $25,000. Shields said. To pump the oil out costs another $50,000 for the pipe and the casement, which keeps water out of the area of the sandstone formation that holds the oil.
Besides the cost of drilling there is the cost of pumping the oil out of the pipe.
"You've got the cost of pumps, batteries and receiving tanks." Shields said. These costs vary depending on depth of water. In many wells are pumping in the field. "There are
While Chataquai County and much of the rest of the state is enjoying a boom, the price of oil has to remain high for it to continue, Shields said.
FacEx to act on allegations
By DAN BOWERS Staff Reporter
Some KU faculty members view recent allegations by the Kansas City Times as a slap in the face to their faith. The city and they plan to do something about it.
At tomorrow's meeting, the Faculty Executive Committee will consider a letter from a professor in the history department calling for a statement of position from FacEx on academic standards at KU.
Chancellor Del Shankel has said that if there are methods available to abuse KU's academic system, they will require all students, not just the athletes.
In a copyright article Feb. 6, the Times alleged that those standards were easily manipulated by athletes. It cited individual cases of players being injured and athletes being steered into easy courses by their advisers.
and this is our opportunity to exercise that," Worth said.
KU OFFICIALS have not viewed the allegations as a problem unique to the athletic department. Acting
George Worth, FaceEx chairman, said the letter asked FaceEx to adopt a resolution deploring the "compromising or dilution of the academic standards of the University of Kansas."
"Iam reasonably sure that FacEx will make a resolution saying something like that at our meeting this week," Worth said earlier this week.
"We think that we have some moral authority with the faculty,
THE LETTER also calls for FacEx to state its opposition to any interference with KU's academic standards by individuals or organizations inside or outside the University.
The main targets of the resolution are two bills that will be introduced in the state House of Representatives. The bills would give the Board of Regents the responsibility to discipline faculty members.
The letter, which was discussed at last week's FacEx meeting concedes that while the resolution may be "bom and apple pie" in its nature, it is necessary to reaffirm KU's academic standards.
"It's a renewed effort to police ourselves and see whether there's a threat to academic standards," he booed. "Professor of anthropology said."
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"There may be individual circumstances where someone is affecting someone else's quality of work, but the standards are still there," he said.
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