THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407110033
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE TENNIS, BRISTOL HERALD-COURIER
DATELINE: JONESVILLE, VA. LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Yes, Virginia, there is oil in the Old Dominion - from one end of Lee County to the other.
But don't get too excited: It's not like Texas or anything. You won't find oil barons talking cattle and crude at Dot's Diner in Ewing or at the Ben Hur Cafe.
Just outside Jonesville, however, you will find oil wells. Several of them. One is sucking oil out of a well 2,000 feet below a grassy field where buffalo roam.
Look across the hills and you'll find more wells dotting Virginia's westernmost county, Lee, like those pumping towers in Texas.
Oil first came gushing out of Lee County in 1948 at the B.C. Fugate Well No. 1. It produced about 90 barrels of oil on its first day of production but eventually settled down to about eight barrels a day.
In 1949, the front page of the first edition of The Bristol Virginia-Tennessean heralded a Lee County oil strike in Rose Hill, an unincorporated town about 15 miles from the Kentucky-Tennessee state line at Cumberland Gap.
``The big oil gusher that blew in at Rose Hill last weekend is still flowing rapidly,'' wrote Virgil Q. Wacks. ``Official reports from drill foreman Chester Louden rate the output still at 100 barrels an hour, more than a week after it `came in.' ''
Farmer Danny Moore worked on 20 wells - not counting some dry holes - since he got started in Lee County's oil business in 1953. Early on, he worked with the late Robert F. Spear, who pioneered Lee County's Rose Hill Field in the 1940s.
``There were a few weeks that everybody got excited,'' said Moore, now 58.
For a couple of decades, Lee County - famous for its caves, coal and cattle - was home to wildcatters looking for raw versions of Pennzoil.
Wells popped up all over cow pastures. And so did oil companies.
With a handful of partners, Moore helped form two now-defunct companies: Lee Oil Drilling and Stone Mountain Oil Drilling.
Oil drilling in Lee County - the top oil-producing county in the state - is a divided dynasty between the Rose Hill Field in the west and the Ben Hur Field in the east. Wise County's oil comes from the Roaring Fork Field.
Virginia's oil production reached its peak in 1983 with 65,400 barrels.
In recent years the rush for oil in Lee and Wise counties, the only sections of the state where crude oil is drilled, has been at a snail's pace.
No one's drilling new oil wells. And no one's exploring new fields.
Those who do operate wells are simply in the business of keeping them going - and, like the men and women who wear the 10-gallon hats in the Lone Star State, praying for better times.
``It's not like Texas here,'' says Dennis Allen, who manages five wells for Ben Hur Oil. ``But there is plenty of oil in Lee County.''
Last year's production - 12,120 barrels - is down from 1992's 12,881.
The price of oil also is not what it used to be. Time was it sold for 35 to 38 bucks a barrel. Now it's half that.
``You're not going to get that much return on your money at the prices right now,'' said Tom Fulmer, director of the Abingdon-based Gas and Oil Division of Virginia's Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
State regulations, too, like Virginia's Gas and Oil Act of 1990, are making new operations more complicated - and costly.
Now, with more regulations and large amounts of money required up front, ``I believe it's over with for us,'' Moore said, referring to independent oil companies.
Regulations govern most all activities, from before you prepare to dig until after a well is plugged and reclaimed. It's all in place to make sure groundwater isn't contaminated, and erosion and sediment are controlled.
``But there's nobody more concerned about fresh water than people trying to produce oil,'' Moore said.
If fresh water permeates the oil-bearing strata, it ``could kill a good well. And no oil producer wants a farmer complaining about oil contaminating water,'' Moore said.
Putting in one well costs upwards of $150,000, Allen estimated.
That kind of investment, with today's oil prices, makes oil drilling here a big risk, Allen and Moore agree.
Unless you hit a Texas-style gusher - which you won't.
``If you took all the oil wells in Virginia - on production a day - that wouldn't come up to one well in Texas,'' Allen said.
Wells are drilled in fields where oil has been found in commercial quantities. Drilling generally takes six weeks to three months, depending on depth. But it may last more than a year in certain cases.
``When you open a well up, it comes in big, and then it stabilizes,'' Allen said. ``And whatever it stabilizes at, it could produce like that for several years.''
Allen, 40, got into the business when Ben Hur Oil officials came knocking at the dairy farmer's gate in 1983 and wanted to drill a well on his land.
That well produced 25 barrels a day at first: ``That's great for this county,'' Allen said. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Dennis Allen stands next to one of five oil wells that he manages
for Ben Hur Oil near Jonesville in Lee County, Va. ``If you took all
the oil wells in Virginia - on production a day - that wouldn't come
up to one well in Texas,'' Allen said.
OIL IN VIRGINIA
Oil first came gushing out of Lee County in 1948 at the B.C.
Fugate Well No. 1. It produced about 90 barrels of oil on its first
day of production but eventually settled down to about eight barrels
a day.
Virginia's oil production reached its peak in 1983 with 65,400
barrels.
Today, the rush for oil in Lee and Wise counties has been at a
snail's pace. No one's drilling new oil wells. And no one's
exploring new fields.
by CNB