PETROLEUM RESOURCES OF KANSAS 97 Petroleum Resources of Kansas By RAYMOND C. MOORE,· PH. D., LA-WRENCE, KANS. (New York Meeting. Febru.... y. 1920) Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/65/01/97/2176920/spe-921097-g.pdf/1 by guest on 27 September 2021 THE oil-producing districts of Kansas comprise the northern portion of the so-called Mid-Continent field. As shown in the accompanying map, these districts are located chiefly in the southeastern and south central parts of the state. A considerable area in southeastern Kansas, extending northward nearly to Kansas City, has long been known as oil territory, the productive wells being distributed in patches or spots of irregular size and shape, the location of which is controlled by conditions of rock structure, and by the texture and porosity of the" sands" beneath the surface. In south central Kansas, there are a number of producing fields, the location of which appears to be controlled chiefly by well-de­ fined structure. The most important districts are those in Butler County, especially that in the vicinity of El Dorado. which was for a time the most productive district in the entire Mid-Continent field. Recently new pro­ duction of importance has been brought in the vicinity of Peabody and present development is active to the north across Marion County. Tests in the western parts of Kansas have not been successful in finding new petroleum fields. HISTORY The first well drilled for petroleum, in Kansas, was near the town of Paola, Miami Co., about 40 mi. southwest of Kansas City, in the summer of 1860, only a few months after the completion of the famous" Colonel" Drake discovery well in Pennsy lvania. Kansas appears to be the second state to engage in a serious attempt to find oil by drilling. The Civil War caused the temporary abandonment of attempts at oil development in the state. It was in the vicinity of Paola, where numerous oil seepages had been observed, that the first well producing oil in commercial quantities was drilled,l where also gas was first piped to the city for commercial use. Prospecting spread southward into Linn County and northward into * State Geologist of Kansas. 1 Raymond C. Moore and Winthrop P. Haynes: Oil and Gas Resources of Kansas. Kans. Geol. Survey Bull. 3a (1917) 20. VOL. IiXV.-7 98 PETROLEUM RESOURCES OF KANSAS Johnson and Wyandotte Counties. a number of small gas wells being ob­ tained. Later development extended southward toward lola, Chanute, Neodesha and Coffeyville, reaching to the houndary of the Indian Terri-' Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/65/01/97/2176920/spe-921097-g.pdf/1 by guest on 27 September 2021 FIG. 1. tory, now Oklahoma. From 1891 until 1894, prospectors covered the entire southeastern part of Kansas along the Neosho and Verdigris rivers. Many oil wells, though none with very large individual production, were RA YMOND C. MOORE 99 brought in, particularly in Allen, Neosho, Montgomery, and Wilson Counties. The production of petroleum in KaI?-sas amounted to relatively little until tests completed in the then Indian Territory showed that beneath the Mid-Continent plains lay really important deposits of oil. The great impetus then given to drilling in Kansas resulted in a very rapid increase in the volume of production. Although in 1900 less than 75,000 bbl. of oil were obtained in the entire state, the production in 1904 amounted to 4,250,779 bbl. Due to the decline in price, drilling fell off and so large Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/65/01/97/2176920/spe-921097-g.pdf/1 by guest on 27 September 2021 an annual production was not again reached until 1916 when, with a considerably increased market price and the recent discovery of the rich Butler County fields, the production of the state was brought to nearly 9,000,000 barrels. The larger place which Kansas has occupied in recent years as a pro­ ducer of petroleum is almost wholly due to the discovery in June, 1914, of commercial quantities of oil in Butler County, south central Kansas. It has been known for a number of years that gas was available in this part of the state. One of the wells in the Augusta gas district was drilled into an oil sand at a depth of about 2500 ft. (761 m.) and before the end of 1914 five oil wells had been drilled in the heart of the gas field. By the close of 1915, the number of oil wells was increased to twelve, one of which is reported to have had an initial natural flow of 1500 bbl. Mean­ while, geological examination of the country to the north revealed a very promising structure in the vicinity of El Dorado. In the latter part of 1915 the Continental Oil & Gas Co., now the Empire Gas & Fuel Co., brought in a 100-bbl. well on the Stapleton farm, section 29, township 25 south, range 5 east, about 15 mi. northwest of Augusta. The discovery was in a sand penetrated at a depth of about 660 ft. (198 m.) Offset wells confirmed the importance of the shallow sand but in the first well the sand was cased off and the drilling continued. A lower productive sand was encountered at a reported depth of 2460 ft., the well being completed with an initial production of 120 bbl. a day from this horizon. Succeeding wells were, for a time, drilled into the shallow sand only. Later the deeper sands were developed, culminating in the discovery and exploitation of the 2500-ft. sand in the Towanda district in the spring and summer of 1917. Some of the wells in this district are reported to have had an initial daily production of more than 25,000 barrels. In the latter part of 1918, oil was discovered in the extreme north­ western part of Butler County east of Elbing. The wells were not im­ portant, but the drilling in the early part of 1919 on a favorable structure south of Peabody, Marion Co., was marked by large production. The present activity in development is in this region and northward across Marion County into Dickinson County. 100 PETROLEUM RESOURCES OF KANSAS STRATIGRAPHY In general, the geology of Kansas is almost ideally simple. The state is a-typical part of the Great Plains region and has the uniformly gentle slope and simplicity of geologic structure which characterize the plains. The surface of Kansas has a general inclination from west to east amounting to about 10 ft. (3 m.) per mile, the elevation of the western state boundary being about 3500 to 4000 ft., that of the eastern boundary from 750 Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/65/01/97/2176920/spe-921097-g.pdf/1 by guest on 27 September 2021 to 1000 ft. The rock formations of which this sloping plain is built lie almost flat and are exposed in broad north-and-south bands across the state. They sag slightly in central Kansas, the rock slope, or dip, being toward the west in the eastern counties and to the east in the western part of the state. The oldest beds appear at the surface in the east and dip beneath the younger overlying formations, which appear in succession as the state is crossed to the west. The rocks in the general region of the Mid-Continent field range in geologic age from almost the oldest known to the youngest. The oldest rocks are granites and other crystalline rocks of pre-Cambrian age, which are exposed in the southeastern part of Missouri, in the Arbuckle and Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and at points north of Kansas farther distant. The pre-Cambrian no­ where appears at the surface in Kansas, but recent exploration for oil and gas in the central part of the state suggests that it approaches the surface much more closely than was supposed. Sufficient tests have been made to indicate quite clearly the presence of a buried ridge or mountain range of granite, which appears to trend in a direction slightly east of north from Butler County to the northern limits of the state. No evidence of metamorphism of the sedimentary rocks immediately overlying the granite has been found, and it is probable that the ridge represents a part of the pre-Cambrian Boor. Table 1 presents the chief stratigraphic divisions of the rocks of Kansas. Strata which ·belong :to the Cambrian and Ordovician, consisting of dolomites, limestones, shales, and sandstones, and aggregating about 2000 ft. (609 m.) in thickness, underlie eastern Kansas and perhaps other parts of the state. They have been penetrated in a number of wells but in no place found to contain commercial quantities of petroleum or natural gas. Upon the eroded surface of the rocks of the older Paleozoic, in the Great Plains country, is found the Mississippian system, or, as it is called by drillers, the "Mississippi lime." The Mississippian is a clearly defined, readily traceable, stratigraphic unit, consisting chiefly of crystalline limestones containing a rather unusual amount of hard flinty chert. RAYMOND C. MOORE 101 TABLE 1.-Geologic Section of the Kansas Region System Groups Formation I Character of Rocks ! 1 Recent I Alluvium. dune sands I Quater nary Pleistocene Wisconsin stage Glacial deposits Cenozoic I Kansas stage I I Unconformity Tertiary -I PJioeene OgalalJa Gravel, sand, clay Miocene Downloaded from http://onepetro.org/TRANS/article-pdf/65/01/97/2176920/spe-921097-g.pdf/1 by guest on 27 September 2021 I Unconformity I Montana I Pierre Shale ! I Cretaceous I Colorado I Niobrara Limestone, chalk, shale 1 I Benton \ MeBozoic I I-----D-a-k-o-t-a-I-sa-n-d-.-t-o-n-.---I Sandstone, shale I Unconformity I Comanchean Washita I Kiowa Sandstone, shale I I Cheyenne I Unconformity \----------1---------------- I Greer "Red beds," sandstone, Cimarron i Woodward I shale, dolomite, gyp- i Cave Creek sum, salt I Enid I Permian -------------------- I W •Iii ng on I Sha Ie, rlmes one Big Blue I Marion I I Chase I i Council Grove I I \ WabnUDsee I Limestone, shale, sand- I Shawnee i stone I Missouri I Douglas 1 I PennsyI' V8msn ! Lansing ! Kansas City i Des Moines i Marmaton Lime&tone, shale, ...nd- Paleozoic I Cherokee stone Unronformi!y Chester Unconformitll I Warsaw Limestone MiB3issippian Osage Keokuk Burlington ...........