Drilling begins outside Marland home

(Ponca City-AP) -- Drilling for oil is under way outside the former Ponca City home of former Oklahoma Governor E-W Marland. <br><br>Warren Corporation of Oklahoma City began drilling Thursday in the front

Friday, August 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Ponca City-AP) -- Drilling for oil is under way outside the former Ponca City home of former Oklahoma Governor E-W Marland.

Warren Corporation of Oklahoma City began drilling Thursday in the front lawn of Marland's Grand Home, the first home Marland owned in Ponca City.

John Warren of Warren Corporation thinks Marland believed there is oil there, but was prohibited by a city ordinance from drilling.

Warren persuaded the Ponca City Commission in May to grant him a permit to drill.

If oil is discovered, Ponca City will receive three-sixteenths of the drilling profits. Nearby property owners were given a choice of taking a percentage of the profits or a lump sum payment.

Marland built a fortune in the oil industry on discoveries made outside Ponca City and controlled ten percent of the world's oil reserves during the early 1920s. He later served in Congress and was Oklahoma's governor from 1935 to 1939.