MINERAL INDUSTRY OF NEW MEXICO 557 
 
gaseous helium were loaded both at the Gallup shipping terminal and the plant.
The Navajo plant was not equipped to produce liquid helium. 
 Late in the year, Kerr-McGee Corp. announced the discovery of helium in
its exploratory well, Navajo—I No. 1, sec 34, T 24 N, R 20 W, San Juan
County. The well flowed 5.8 million cubic feet of gas per day, 5.5 percent
helium, from the McCracken formation (Devonian) at 3,800 to 3,810 feet and
3,815 to 3,832 feet. From Precambrian quartzite, it flowed 3.2 million cubic
feet of gas per day,. 5.68 percent helium, at various intervals, 3,856 to
3,873 feet, 3,919 to 3,940 feet, and 3,960 to 3,965 feet. 
 Natural Gas.—Marketed natural gas increased 7 percent over that of
1966; most of this was from fields in Eddy County which registered a 22-percent
increase in production. Fifty-one percent of the yield was from the San Juan
basin. 
 The State Oil Conservation Commission reported that, at yearend, 8,567 gas
wells were producing from 178 pools; as in the past, casinghead gas was produced
from many of the oilfields. 
 The American Petroleum Institute (API) American Gas Association, Inc., (AGA),
and Canadian Petroleum Association in their annual reserve estimates5 indicated
a slight increase in gas reserves to 15.1 trillion cubic feet. New fields
and new pools added 62.9 billion cubic feet, and revisions and extensions
in existing fields added 1,233.2 billion cubic feet to the reserves. New
Mexico continued to be ranked fifth in the Nation in such reserves. 
 The current deep drilling activity in the Delaware basin of New Mexico and
west Texas resulted in several gas discoveries in Eddy County. Texaco Inc.
and Pauley Petroleum, Inc., completed their Cotton Draw Unit No. 65, sec
2, T 25 S, R 31 E, as a dual gas discovery in the Wolfcamp (Permian) and
Morrow (Pennsylvanian) formations. Initial potential production from the
Wolfcamp, from the interval 12,785 to 12,851 feet, was 9.6 million cubic
feet per day and from the Morrow, at 14,787 to 14,867 feet, was 21.2 million
cubic feet. 
 Pan American Petroleum Corp. completed its Poker Lake Unit No. 36, sec 28,
T 24 S, R 31 E, from the Devonian at 16,526 to 16,660 feet for an initial

potential of 42.7 million cubic feet. Later in the year when the well was
perforated in the Morrow interval, 14,950 to 15,010 feet, it yielded 2.2
million cubic feet of gas per day. 
 On the northwest flank of the Delaware basin, Cities Service Oil Co. completed
its Big Eddy Unit No. 17, sec 2, T 21 5, R 29 E, for 9 million cubic f~et
of gas plus 180 barrels of condetisate per day from Morrow perforations at
12,696 to 12,800 feet. 
 Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America completed, on Ndvember 9, a $20.6
million pipeline program to link gas production in southeastern New Mexico
with its existing pipeline from Moore County, Tex., to midwestern markets.
The project included 230 miles of 24-inch and 26 miles of 20-inch pipeline
and a 4,000-horsepower compressor station 16 miles west of Lovington. Planned
for an initial capacity of 221 million cubic feet per day, the line was to
reach an ultimate capacity of 450 million cubic feet within 4 years. 
 Late in the year El Paso Natural Gas Co. was completing a 49-mile, 20-inch
gas pipeline from Lusk to Caprock. 
 The first attempt at commercial use of nuclear explosions occurred in New
Mexico when the 26-kiloton device of Project Gasbuggy was detonated. The
test site was in the SW¼ sec 36, T29N, R4W, Rio Arriba County, about
55 miles east of Farmington. The project was designed to increase natural-gas
production from low-permeability sandstones in the San Juan basin. The detonation
occurred December 10, at 4,240 feet, 40 feet below the base of the gas-bearing,
287-foot-thick Pictured Cliffs formation (Cretaceous). The explosion was
to open up a chimney in the Pictured Cliffs sandstone about 160 feet in diameter
and 350 feet high, surrounded by a highly fractured zone extending approximately
340 feet laterally and 40 feet vertically. Preliminary post shot investigations
indicated that the chimney height was very close to estimates but that the
fractures were longer than expected. If successful, this technique of 
 
 
5 American Gas Association, Inc., American 
Petroleum Institute, and Canadian Petroleum 
Association, Reserves of Crude Oil. Natural Gas 
Liquids, and Natural Gas in the United States 
and Canada as of Dec. 31, 1967. V. 22, May 
1968, p. 125.