Old Wells

At a certain point, pumping oil out of old oil wells ceases to be profitable; the wells are in consequence usually abandoned. The State Geological Department of New York, however, claims to have perfected a new method of extracting the oil remaining in almost exhausted wells. The new system consists of drilling new wells and flooding the oil sands with water. After about a year of this treatment, it is said, the petroleum left in the pockets is forced toward the old well-shafts, and can be pumped out in considerable quantities. New York State owns extensive though run-down oil fields in Allegheny and Cattaraugus Counties; it is estimated that the high grade oil obtainable there through the new flooding process will cost only $2 a barrel to extract, and can readily be sold for twice that sum. The State geologists estimate the recoverable oil in these fields as being worth $510 millions, with a possibility of $270 millions profit to the State.

The real significance of the new system will doubtless 'be found in the

Pennsylvania and other old oil fields which have begun to run dry. If the claims made for the "flooding" method are borne out by subsequent experience, the plan should greatly increase the recoverable oil supply of the U. S.