ABSTRACT
Although the salt has not been drilled into, the presence of a typical cap-rock mass of anhydrite and gypsum capped by “lime” rock indicates that Saratoga is a salt dome. The cap rock is elliptical in plan with its major axis about 1 miles in length and northeast-southwest in strike. The beds penetrated in drilling range in age from Jackson (Eocene) to Pleistocene. The oil is found on a series of lensing supercap sands. Oil was first produced thirty years ago from a shallow well and used for medicinal purposes. The real discovery of the oil field followed shortly after the discovery of Spindletop. The production reached a maximum of 3,000,000 barrels in 1903, and on account of the successive discoveries of new “sands” has fallen off moderately slowly. The crude oil is an 18° Baumé oil with a high content of lubricant stock but also with a rather high content of sulphur. Dates are given in regard to production methods and costs.
D. C. B.
