Oil field

“ The largest unoccupied field to-day is the fuel gas field, and who should step in and supply this demand? Could any one do it as well as the present gas companies? We have our mains and services already laid; we have our holders, meters, and trained labor, most of us have also the necessary land to spare on which to erect the generators.
Next to the fuel gas field I think I can see another field nearly as extensive, and that is the coal oil field. ”

“ Oil Creek and its varied branches, Pithole and its suburbs, Forest and Warren had figured creditably in oil-developments, but the Mastodon of the North was yet to come. “The goal of yesterday shall be the starting point of to-morrow” is especially true of oil-operations. At times men have supposed the limits of juicy territory had been reached, only to be startled by the unexpected opening of a larger, grander field than any that preceded it. Guessing the weather a month ahead is child’s play in comparison with guessing where oil may be found in paying quantity. ”

“ An "oil field" may extend over thousands of square miles; but within this field there are always "pools"; that is, certain smaller fields, where oil is found. When a man thinks there is oil in a certain spot, sometimes he buys the land if he is able; but oftener he gets permission of the owner to bore a well, agreeing to pay him a royalty; that is, a certain percentage of all the oil that is produced. When this has been arranged, he builds his derrick. This consists of four strong upright beams firmly held together by crossbeams. It stands directly over the place where the well is to be dug. ”

“ Oil exists in the pores and crevices of rocks and sand and moves through these channels. A large area of this sort is called a pool or reservoir and the East Texas field is a giant pool. The chief forces causing oil to move are gas and water, and it is essential that the pressures be maintained at a level which will force the oil through wells to the surface. As the gas pressure is dissipated, it becomes necessary to put the well 'on the pump' at great expense; [7] and the sooner the gas from a field is exhausted, the more oil is irretrievably lost. ”

“ Petroleum occurs in sedimentary rocks of marine origin, usually rocks which also contain the shells of some of the animals, the soft parts of which made the oil. To have been preserved the millions of years since the petroleum was first formed, the oil-bearing layers must have been covered by some impervious layer of rock, beneath the domes and anticlines of which the oil has lain ever since. When such a dome or anticlinal fold is perforated by a well, the released oil flows to the surface with a greater or less rush, according to the pressure. ”

“ There is no other oil-producing country in the world where the petroleum industry has reached such a highly organized state as in the United States. Each producing field is connected by means of underground pipe-lines with the trunk pipe-line system, by which it is possible to pump oil from the most distant fields direct to the Atlantic seaboard. ”

“ If the sandstones were open to the air, or if fissures extended from them to the surface, the oil has escaped to the surface and evaporated into the air. But in those cases where the sandstone (or other permeable rocks) was covered by an impervious layer, like a dense shale or clay, the oil was confined below the covering layer of rock. Crude oil is lighter than water; so that when natural gas, petroleum and water were all present in the rocks, the gas lies on top, the petroleum next, and the water underneath. ”

“ The conditions of formation and accumulation of petroleum point to the fact that the principal oil fields of the world are merely reservoirs, which will become exhausted in the course of years, as in the case of the decreasing yield of certain of the American fields. But new deposits are continually being exploited, and there may be others as yet unknown, which would entirely alter any view that might be expressed at the present time in regard to the probable duration of the world's supply of oil and gas. ”

“ The ever-expanding uses of petroleum, which in their train have called for a continually increasing demand for crude oil, have given an impetus to the search for commercially productive oil-fields, which, in mining history, has no parallel. On the one hand, we have those important oil-producing regions which embrace enormous regions of the United States, Mexico, Russia, Roumania, the Dutch Indies, India, and Galicia ”

“ Nevertheless there is no respite in the oil fields. The oil can be stored, the oil producers can afford to wait. So new towers grow up, new holes are bored. Down into the bowels of the earth 1800 feet below sea level the great metal shaft is drilled with the full force of its 4,000 pounds weight until it bores through into the illusive river of oil that flows way 250 down. Albeit in the harbor a few ships only await its flow to carry it to the four corners of the earth, the oil is being caught and caged, forced, heated, pumped and rushed along as before. ”

“ Petroleum has long been popularly regarded as a mineral oil. As its derivation indicates, the word means 'rock oil,' an oily substance so named because found naturally oozing from crevices in rocks. Its existence in this country was known from very early times, and when this and other railroad land grants, containing an exception of mineral lands, were made, the extraction of oil from its natural reservoir in subterranean rocks had come to be a promising industry and was extending over an increasing area through discoveries of new oil fields. ”

“ Since the oil moves through the entire field, one operator can not only draw the oil from under his own surface area, but can also, if he is advantageously located, drain oil from the most distant parts of the reservoir. The practice of attempting to drain oil from under the surface holdings of others leads to offset wells and other wasteful practices; and this problem is increased by the fact that the surface rights are split up into many small tracts. ”

“ Of fourth sand, fifth sand, Gordon rock, fifty-foot rock, Trenton rock, Berea grit, corn-meal rock, Big-Injun sand and others of the deep-down brand operators on Dunkard Creek never dreamed. Some oil was detected and more blocks of land were tied up in 1864-5. The credulous natives actually believed their county would soon be shedding oil from every hill and hollow, garden and pasture-field. The holders of the tracts—lessees for speculation only—drilled a trifle, sold interests to any suckers wanting to bite and the promised developments fizzled. ”

“ He wandered about the field with Dad and the geologist and the boss driller, while they laid out the sites for future wells; and Dad took an envelope and pencil, and explained to Bunny why you place your wells on the four corners of a diamond, and not on the four corners of a square. You may try that out for yourself, drawing a circle about each well, to indicate the territory from which the oil is drained; you will see that the diamond shape covers the ground with less overlapping. Wherever you overlap, you are drilling two holes to get the same barrel of oil ”

“ The flow was sufficient to supply Oil City, Titusville and Franklin with all the gas required. Hundreds of wells have been drilled to the Speechly sand and the field now reaches from the southern part of Rockland township, Venango county, to Tionesta township, Forest county. It is about thirty miles long, with an average width of three miles, while the sand ranges in thickness from fifty to one-hundred feet. The pressure gradually diminishes. It requires constant drilling to keep up the supply, the Oil-City Company alone having about four-hundred wells. ”

“ To discourage the sinking of wells on land immediately adjoining productive territory, it has been usual to drill along the borders of the land as far as practicable, in order to first obtain the oil which might otherwise be raised by others, and on account of the small area often controlled by the operator, the number of wells drilled has frequently been far in excess of the number which might reasonably be sunk Experience has proved that in some of the oil fields of the United States one well to five acres is as close as they should be drilled. ”

“ Although there is no immediate prospect of the failure of the coal and oil supplies, exhaustion is surely approaching. And as the supplies of fuel for the production of gas and electricity diminish, the cost of lighting may advance. The total amount of oil available in the known oil-fields of this country at the present time has been estimated by various experts between 5,000,000,000 and 20,000,000,000 barrels, the best estimate being about 7,000,000,000. The annual consumption is now about 400,000,000 barrels. ”

“ Oil fields are being continually opened up in other parts of the world, and vshilst America still maintains her position as the largest petroleum producer, the world's supplies are now being derived from a steadily increasing number of centres. ”

“ People come from vast distances to fetch it, for in all other countries [Pg 333] there is no oil.” His last words have been confuted by the American oil-fields, yielding many thousands of barrels a day—often in such quantities that the oil runs to waste for lack of a buyer. ”

“ A light and pleasing blue, with a greenish-grey cast by day, it possesses little depth or richness, and is far excelled in beauty by a good aluminous cobalt. A certain chalkiness, moreover, somewhat detracts from its transparency, and militates against its use in water. It is in oil, and as a night colour, that cœruleum becomes of service, as our present system of lighting picture galleries by gas affects the purity of blues generally. ”

“ But there is one point which must not be overlooked in this connection, and that is the fact that, while thus far very few thoroughly developed oil-fields have shown signs of permanent decay, there are numerous others which, while having already furnished conclusive proof of their productivity, have, for the most part, been but slightly developed. Each passing year registers the incoming of fresh oil-producing areas, while numerous regions in practically every part of the world, giving much promise of the success of ultimate oil developments, are as yet virgin territory. ”

“ They took the automobile after inspecting the storage tank and went several miles farther up the field to the gasolene plant that was isolated from the rest of the buildings. Here they saw how the crude petroleum was refined to make gasolene and were told the elaborate precautions observed to keep this highly inflammable produce from catching fire. ”

“ Chauncey F. Lufkin, of Lima, Ohio, inventor of the “Disk Powers” that make oil-wells almost pump themselves, says it is funnier than a three-ringed circus to watch a group of half-clad girls and women, two-thirds of them carrying babies, taking turns at this operation. He has traveled through the oil-fields of Sumatra, India and Russia and his kodak has reproduced many odd scenes for the delectation of his friends. Two companies drilling in Java propose to find out all about its oil-resources as quickly as the tools can reach the decisive spot. ”

“ W. L. Hardison, who operated in the Clarion and Bradford fields and served a couple of terms in the Legislature, and Lyman Stewart, of Titusville, have been largely interested in the California field for ten years. Los-Angeles wells are seven to nine-hundred feet deep, yield six barrels to seventy-five at the start and employ six-hundred men. The oil is used for fuel and lubrication, produces superior asphaltum and a distillate for stove-burners and gasoline-engines. It cannot be 308refined profitably for illuminating. ”

“ Cheap fuel was necessary to successful glass making. How could New England coal compete with natural gas? So Ohio came to the front. A few years ago Ohio's natural gas became exhausted. Without a day's disturbance petroleum [Pg 23] succeeded gas, and better glass was made than ever, because oil produces a more even temperature. Verily "there is a soul of goodness in things evil." From Massachusetts to Ohio, from coal to gas, from gas to petroleum, what would be the next act in the drama of American glass? What, indeed, but an act the scene of which was laid in the grounds of the World's Fair! ”

“ Bradford, Tarport, Limestone, Sawyer, Gillmor, Derrick, Red Rock, State Line, Four-Mile, Duke Centre, Rexford, Bordell, Rew City, Coleville, Custer and De Golia, with their thousands of wells, their hosts of live people, their boundless activity, their crowded railways, their endless procession of teams and their unlimited energy, were for the nonce the brightest galaxy of oil-towns that ever flourished in the busy realm of petroleum. ”

“ And so the early operators on Oil Creek made the oil-development “a foot long” and it “growed the rest.” The tiny seed is a vigorous plant, the puling babe a lusty giant. Amid lights and shadows, clouds and sunshine, successes and failures, struggles and triumphs, starless nights and radiant days, petroleum has moved ahead steadily. Growth, “creation by law,” is ever going on in the healthy plant, the tree, the animal, the mind, the universe. We must go forward if the acorn is to become an oak, the infant a mature man, the feeble industry a sturdy development. ”

“ They have seen the four salt-and-oil wells at Tarentum and the solitary oil-well at Titusville multiplied into a hundred-thousand holes drilled for petroleum and a production almost beyond calculation. Do the gentlemen composing this little group occupy a position dramatic in the marvelous events they review? Is petroleum freighted with interest and a touch of romance at every step of its passage from the well to the lamp? ”

“ The encroachment of sea-water to the wells themselves is prevented by the continuance of the tubes in the wells to a height above the level of high-water mark, the produced oil being piped to the mainland. ”