MIKE RAYMOND (continued)

      After his discharge, Mike resumed his career with Raymond Oil.  Although Raymond Oil has concentrated a lot of their exploration efforts in Kansas,  at various times they have also maintained offices in Denver and Casper.  Their geologist in Casper, Wallace Stewart, who was well-known throughout the Rockies, recently passed away.

      One particularly interesting test drilled by Raymond Oil resulted from Bob Lewellyn submitting a log with a repeated section of either Simpson Sand or top of the Arbuckle, which indicated the presence of a thrust fault.  After shooting, Bill Ham identified a fault on the seismic records.  Drilling of this prospect resulted in the discovery of the Blackhall Field in southern Rice County.  This field is unique because it produced oil rather than gas from the Lyons Anticline.  When a dipmeter was run, it not only identified the thrust faulting but the drag associated with the fault on both sides of the fault plane.

     Mike recalls that he was on his way to Clearwater  at 10:00 pm one night to observe a DST.  As he was driving near Haysville he noted a rig drilling.  The next morning as he was returning to Wichita, he noted that this rig was shut down with 5 ½” sticking out of the table and with oil on the pits.  This information allowed Raymond Oil to get an early start on leasing in the Gladys Field.  Among the many excellent geologists who have worked for Raymond Oil are: Bill Capps, Rick Clinton , Tim Hellman, Clarke Sandberg and Charles Spradlin.

     Even though he has had a very busy career, Mike has found time to pursue his hobby of “skeet shooting.”  When asked what professional influenced his career the most, Mike says his Dad who was a “traditional oilman” exerted the most influence on his career.  There isn’t any question in Mike’s mind that if he had it to do all over, he would follow essentially the same career as a petroleum geologist.  He just wishes he had energy and the time to do it once again. On the other hand he doesn’t plan to retire for as he says, “oilmen never retire.” And like many of those oilmen, Mike would still like to find one more good field.