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Show ~EPORT OF THE COMII~ISSIONER OF INDIAN ~FAIRS. 51 Oklahoma leads the list of the 15 oil producing States of the Union in the amount of oil produced. There will be found in the appendix a table (29) showing the oil production from the territory of the Five Civilized Tribes during the years 1907, 1908, and 1909. It is estimated that the amount of oil held in storage in the Creek and Cherokee nations on June 30, 1909, was 42,654,403 barrels, of which 35,116,193 barrels are owned by pipe-line companies and 7,538,220 barrels are held by the producers unsold. OSAGE MINING OPERATIONS. Oil and gas operations on the Osage Indian Reservation are con-ducted under what is known as the Edwin B. Foster oil and gas lease of March 16, 1896. This lease, through various assignments, has become the property of the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Com-pany. The original lease expired by limitation on March 16, 1906, but was extended for a period of ten years by the act of March 3, 1905. At the beginning of the last hcal year there were 867 oil wells, 74 gas wells, and 378 nonproducing wells, a total of 1,319 wells. . On June 30, 1909, there were 961 oil wells, 74 gas' wells, and 436 dry or nonproducing wells, a. total of 1,471 wells, an increase for the fiscal year of 95 oil wells and 58 nonproducing wells. There was produced and run from the reservation during the kcal year a total of 4,816,462.64 barrels of oil, one-eighth of which was credited to. the Osage Nation as royalty and amounted to 602,057.83 bahls, valued at $245,300.24. The gas sold from combination wells brought $1,067.20, of which the Osage Nation received one-eighth as royalty, amounting to $133.40. The royalty from regular commercial gas wells amounted to $2,525. The total value of oil and gas products for the reservation for the year, therefore, amounted to $247,958.70. The development of oil and gas operations on this reservation is now well under way and bids fair to rival that of the Five Civilized Tribes. . . In the appendix will be found a table (30) showing in detail the production and value of oil produced on the reservation and the companies to whom it was sold. SHOSHONE RESERVATION. . There has been an increased demand during the year for the privi-lege of leasing the tribal and allotted lands of the Shoshone Reserva-tion, Wyo., for oil and coal development. |