Mandatory Co-op

Soon after it was discovered, four years ago, Oklahoma's great West Edmond oilfield (TIME, Aug. 21, 1944) became the scene of a scramble. Many individual wildcatters and companies, using the greatest concentration of rotary drilling rigs in the world, began boring into its 30,000 acres in a furious race for oil. Last week West Edmond was the scene of an even more historic retreat. The companies who operate its 740 wells were getting ready to shut them down and pull out, with most of their equipment.

Exodus from Plenty. The exodus did not mean that the field was running dry --far from it. West Edmond has yielded only some 60,000,000 of its estimated 600,000,000 barrels of oil. But at a time when the nation is fast using up its known oil reserves, West Edmond is flagrantly wasting its supply. To save the greatest possible amount of what remains, Oklahoma's oil-regulating Corporation Commission ordered "unitization" of the field, i.e., operating it as if it were a single lease. This was the most drastic step yet taken by any state to conserve oil.

The waste at West Edmond is common to most fields. For lack of storage tanks, pipelines and nearby markets, operators have always "vented," i.e., burned off in flares or simply released, great quantities of natural gas. Aside from the loss in fuel, this practice has caused an even more important drop in underground gas pressure, by which much oil is brought to the surface. In West Edmond alone, venting last year reached an estimated volume of 250,000,000 cubic feet per day.

Exile of Waste. By eliminating the fierce competition between neighboring leaseholders, unitization can reduce and control venting, actually step up production for a field as a whole. In numerous small fields, operators have voluntarily pooled their efforts and shared proportionately in the output. But for West Edmond, in which 32 companies and some 2,800 landowners are interested, it took a rigid law. The Oklahoma legislature passed the law in 1945, but hearings, arguments and appeals delayed its action until now.

A few operators are still fighting the law. Nevertheless, Oklahoma last week confidently appointed an ex-Texas Co. executive named H. N. Pardee to supervise the West Edmond cooperative, instructed him to put unitization into effect by Oct. 1. As a unit, the field will be worked by Sohio Petroleum Co., one of the largest of the present operators. By shutting down all the wells that have a high gas ratio compared to oil, Pardee hopes to boost the field's production from a present daily average of 40,000 bbls. to 50,000 bbls. "The time will come," he said, "when new fields will be unitized before the first well is drilled."

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