May 23, 2013
An oil company official is refusing to say whether it found anything under the Florida Panhandle's Yellow River flood plain, but says there are NO immediate plans for the site.
Zinke and Trumbo Incorporated of Tulsa drilled an exploratory well West of Crestview, Florida earlier this year. Spokesman Wayne Taylor says that went according to plan, but he WON'T comment much beyond that.
The state would collect an eight percent severance tax on any oil extracted. It would pass on a share equal to two percent to the county, which would use it for education.
Zinke and Trumbo drilled under Interstate-10 to reach a point beneath wetlands, where it had leased mineral rights. It's part of the same geologic formation that produced oil strikes near Jay in neighboring Santa Rosa County in the 1970s.
The Jay wells, which were once a boon for Santa Rosa, are now nearly dry.
