IBJNews

Indianapolis firm seeks oil in north-central Indiana

Back to TopCommentsE-mailPrint

An Indianapolis company searching for oil across the state hopes an Indiana oil field that once was the largest in the United States can be lucrative again.

CountryMark is taking its search to Cass County in hopes that new technology will be able to find oil in north-central Indiana, the Pharos-Tribune reported. The county is near the edge of the Trenton Oil Field, which once spread beneath a huge portion of east-central Indiana.

Rick Sumner of CountryMark said the field was discovered in the 1800s and produced several hundred million barrels of oil before being plugged in the 1920s. Oil companies have been targeting the field for more exploration in recent years.

Workers will use seismic sensors to collect data to create a kind of underground map. The map will show whether oil is present.

Work is expected to begin in about a month.

Countrymark operates a refinery in Mount Vernon and has other oil wells in Indiana, including one in eastern Vigo County near Terre Haute on property owned by the Hulman family, which owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It acquired 600 wells in the Illinois basin in 2010.

 

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Countrymark
    DK - Oil/Gas is a comodity so the within a geographic region the price will always be relatively similar. If they charged significantly less everyone would go to them and they would run out, if they charged significantly more no one would buy the oil. The cost to produce, ship and refine the oil is different for all suppliers but they charge the same amount based on market forces.
  • Countrymark
    If Countrymark produces most of its' oil from the Midwest, why are their prices the same as companies that have to import their supply from the Middle East?

    Post a comment to this story

    COMMENTS POLICY
    We reserve the right to remove any post that we feel is obscene, profane, vulgar, racist, sexually explicit, abusive, or hateful.
     
    You are legally responsible for what you post and your anonymity is not guaranteed.
     
    Posts that insult, defame, threaten, harass or abuse other readers or people mentioned in IBJ editorial content are also subject to removal. Please respect the privacy of individuals and refrain from posting personal information.
     
    No solicitations, spamming or advertisements are allowed. Readers may post links to other informational websites that are relevant to the topic at hand, but please do not link to objectionable material.
     
    We may remove messages that are unrelated to the topic, encourage illegal activity, use all capital letters or are unreadable.
     

    Messages that are flagged by readers as objectionable will be reviewed and may or may not be removed. Please do not flag a post simply because you disagree with it.

    Sponsored by
    ADVERTISEMENT

    facebook - twitter on Facebook & Twitter

    Follow on TwitterFollow IBJ on Facebook:
    Follow on TwitterFollow IBJ's Tweets on these topics:
     
    Subscribe to IBJ
    1. these guys only skill was to steal from other's hard earned savings.

    2. I voted for him last time and it WAS the LAST time. He needed to to quit running around the world on useless trips, and giving our $$ away to sports teams. I'll vote for anyone but Ballard next time. BTW...we gave $40M to the Pacers and cannot even watch the games on TV.

    3. For the people concerned about traffic, you should know that mixed-use projects (like the one being proposed), actually allows for and encourages more people to walk and bike, thereby mitigating additional automobile traffic. If we continue to design and build suburban-type projects in the City (i.e. automobile-oriented projects), we are not offering anything different from what the suburbs offer, which means we will continue to lose jobs/people to the suburbs. The reason Broad Ripple is somewhat successful today is that people want to live in a place that offers the convenience of being able to walk/bike to restaurants, retail, nightlife, the Monon, etc. Why would you not want to support a project that is complimentary to what already makes the area desirable? The real argument with this project should be its lack-luster design and layout, not the density.

    4. It is unfortunate that there is a perception that celebrities validate an event. The Indy 500 stands on its own, especially for those coming in from out of town. It was always so disturbing to read the gushing descriptions of Ashley Judd threaded throughout the local coverage. Very happy that era is at an end.

    5. Good ole' Obamacare. Thanks liberals and those who didn't bother to vote.

    ADVERTISEMENT