Petroleum well

“ A lesson that we can learn from our past experience is simple: The impru­dence of being overly dependent on one key product or fuel. The petroleum story of the 70s appears no different from the past, so that it almost seemed natural that the world economy, functioning under the virtual monopoly of petroleum, had to stumble upon the crisis.
We have learned a lesson well, and our efforts are only limited by time as well as resources. To date, the government supplies 145,000 barrels per day or 64 percent of the country’s total oil requirements. ”

“ Providence had literally forced upon men's attention that which should fill many dwellings with light, and many hearts with gladness.
Upon withdrawing the drill from the well, the oil and water rose nearly to the surface. The question was now to be tested whether the petroleum would present itself in sufficient quantities to justify further proceedings, or whether it was, like many another dream, to vanish in darkness, or dissolve in tears. The well was tubed, and by a common hand pump yielded ten barrels per day. ”

“ Petroleum as a Fuel and Gas-Producer.—The use of gasolene in gas-machines is well known, and sometimes naphtha has been used to enrich coal-gas, by decomposing its vapor at a cherry-red heat, so as to produce a gas rich in heavy hydrocarbons, which is mixed with the coal-gas. Crude petroleum has also been conducted continuously into red-hot cast-iron retorts, whereby it is decomposed and rich gas formed. ”

“ Oils are also artificially produced from the so-called waste-products of the gas-works, but in some parts of the world the process of their manufacture has gone on naturally, and a yearly increasing quantity is being utilised. In England oil has been pumped up from the carboniferous strata of Coalbrook Dale, whilst in Sussex it has been found in smaller quantities, where, in all probability, it has had its origin in the lignitic beds of the Wealden strata. Immense quantities are used for fuel by the Russian steamers on the Caspian Sea, the Baku petroleum wells being a most valuable possession. ”

“ Of a truth, we to-day live in an age of Oil, for the products of petroleum are inseparable from our daily life. Refined petroleum breathes the breath of power to the internal combustion engine which claims a realm of its own on land and sea, in the air, and under ocean waters; it also gives artificial light to countless millions in all corners of the world under a variety of circumstances and dissimilar conditions, while the wheels of industry unceasingly revolve consequent upon oil lubrication. ”

“ Owing to the enormous cost of handling coal, wood, and other crude fuel, and of removing the ash resulting from such fuel, it has been demonstrated in practice by the use of crude oil that the expense connected with the burning of brick can be reduced fully 60 per cent. This large saving is made by converting crude petroleum into gas and utilizing this fuel, either directly in the arches of the kiln or by converting the crude oil into gas in a gas producer, and drawing this fuel gas from the producer and burning the same as required in kilns of suitable construction. ”

“ Given the one allowance that oil fuel can be procured at anything approaching a reasonable figure—and there is no reason why, in normal times, this reasonable price should not be prevalent all over the world—then petroleum offers many advantages over its older competitor, coal. The ease with which large quantities can be handled, the simple method of operating anything which is fired by petroleum as fuel, and the fact that its heat-giving units are far higher than those of coal, will ever be the chief factors governing its popularity. ”

“ Taking first the methods of oil transportation by land, in no other oil-producing country do we find such an elaborate system for dealing with enormous quantities of petroleum as in America, for it is safe to say that at least 500,000 barrels of crude oil have to be dealt with daily at the present time. ”

“ The principal uses of petroleum are for burning as crude oil in furnaces and under boilers, particularly in locomotives. The refined products have various uses. Probably the most important is the lubricating oil. This is necessary in the development of all kinds of power. At least one-half pint of lubricating oil is used for every ton of coal consumed for power. All engines, all street and steam railways, steamships, sewing-machines, clocks, watches, and automobiles, in fact all operating machinery requires its use ”

“ And in no sphere of commercial and industrial activity has greater progress been made during the past few decades than in regard to the multiplication in the uses of the products of petroleum. The avenues for advantageous consumption are constantly increasing, and this to such an extent that the production of crude petroleum—enormous though this is—has been outstripped by the demands for the refined product. ”

“ It has added untold millions to the wealth of the country and conferred incalculable benefits upon humanity. To-day refined petroleum lights more dwellings in America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia than all other agencies combined. ”

“ Many years ago, fuel oil made its serious début, but at that time the supply of the product was very uncertain, and, consequently, progress in passing from the old to the new form of power-raising was slow. To-day, however, matters have materially changed. The crude oil output has been immeasurably increased, and many fields whose production of crude oil is essentially suited for fuel purposes have been opened up. ”

“ The very best of our engineering talent have been so successfully concerned with this problem that fuel oil is now used in nearly every steam plant on land and sea, for both stationary and locomotive use. Petroleum-enriched water gas is much superior in cost and quality to the illuminant it is displacing, and now requires considerable oil. Smelting with oil will soon be an accomplished fact in spite of many difficulties, and oil engines such as the Diesel also utilize the crude. ”

“ The enormous wastage of a world's war, resulting in a cry for more production, a new level of high prices for crude, rumors of an alarming shortage of supply, the success of independent producers, large and small—all these, and other reasons, too, caused many people hitherto uninterested to turn their serious attention to petroleum. ”

“ In short, the advantages of natural gas as a fuel are so obvious to those who have given it a trial, that the prediction is made that, should the supply fail, many who are now using it will never return to the consumption of crude coal in factories, but, if necessary, convert it or petroleum into gas at their own works. ”

“ We are apt to ignore the greatness of this loss because the gas escapes into the air and we can not see it, or it burns and we see only its effect, not the loss of fuel, but if we could see it in the form of oil we should find that a billion feet of gas is equal to more than a hundred and sixty thousand barrels of petroleum. ”

“ Another cause which is seemingly applicable in many cases is hydrostatic pressure, where under certain structural conditions the pressure of water in a long-tilted layer is exerted against oil accumulated toward the top of an anticline (or upbend) in the strata.
The world’s output of petroleum for 1917 was nearly 559,000,000 barrels, of which the United States produced nearly 338,000,000 barrels, Mexico 87,000,000 barrels, and Russia 34,000,000 barrels of 42 gallons.
Natural Gas. The most perfect fuel with which nature has provided us is natural gas. ”

“ As petroleum is being used as a substitute for coal—and inasmuch as the whole problem of fuel supply is one—we are ultimately compelled to an investigation of the ability of our petroleum supply to meet its present drain and to meet the expansion in its use, which is the most surprising development of our day in the study of power creation. ”

“ In 1916, many plants shifted from coal to fuel oil, because of the inability of the railroads to deliver coal. We have developed an oil-burning navy and are rapidly developing an oil-burning merchant marine. Ships and factory furnaces are competing with the internal-combustion engines of millions of automobiles and the hungry lamps of the countryside for the diminishing reserves of petroleum. Already the supply of crude petroleum is hard pressed by the demand for fuel oil. Already approximately one-half of the original petroleum supply of the United States is gone. ”

“ The festive boys who painted the early oil-towns red are getting gray and wrinkled, yet they smile clear down to their boots as they think of Petroleum Centre, Pithole, Babylon, or any other of the rapid places which shed a lurid glare along in the sixties. The smile is not so much on account of flowing wells and six-dollar crude as because of the rollicking scenes which carmined the pioneer-period of Petroleum. ”

“ I know that many of you have suspected that some supplies of oil and gas are being withheld. You may be right, but suspicions about oil companies cannot change the fact that we are running out of petroleum. ”

“ Petroleum products are also largely utilized in gas manufacture for, (1) the production of “air-gas,” (2) the manufacture of oil-gas, and (3) the enrichment of coal-gas. For heating purposes, the stoves employed are practically kerosene lamps of suitable construction, though gasoline is used as a domestic fuel in the United States. The use of petroleum as liquid fuel is dealt with under Fuel, as is the employment of its products in motors, which has greatly increased the demand for petroleum spirit. ”

“ There is also another phase of the oil-refining industry which, during recent years, has materially altered. I refer to the production of solar oil during distillation. It is an apt saying that we can scarcely look to any section of our commercial or domestic life without being confronted with the fact that oil products play some part therein: there are few, however, who, without reflection, would agree that when they light their gas they are dependent upon petroleum for much of the light the gas gives. ”

“ It is delivered at your house in neat cans, or the grocer will sell it by the pint, quart, gallon or barrel. The light is pure as heaven’s own sunshine, grateful to the eye and beautifying to the home. No other substance approaches petroleum in the number and utility of its products. Long years of patient research and experiment have extracted from it one-hundred-and-fifty articles of value in art, science, mechanics and domestic economy. ”

“ The case of petroleum is peculiarly instructive. When it became apparent, in the early years of the present century that oil burning ships, motor vehicles and air craft were bound to play a determining part in the economic life of the immediate future, various interests such as the Shell Transport, Royal Dutch and the Standard Oil, with the open or tacit backing of their respective state departments, entered on a campaign to secure the world's supply of petroleum. ”

“ From that beginning it has increased to an annual production of 14,500,000 barrels of crude oil. The first export was in 1861, of 27,000 barrels, valued at $1,000,000, and the export of petroleum in the year 1877 was, in round numbers, $62,000,000. The annual product of petroleum to-day—crude and refined—is greater in value than the entire production of iron, and is more than double that of the anthracite coal of the State of Pennsylvania, and exceeds the gold and silver product of the whole country. ”

“ The earth is even being drilled, not for petroleum, but for its huge supplies of natural gas, and the huge reservoirs thus discovered are being harnessed to the thousand wheels of industry. We even find trains fitted with cylinders carrying natural gas stored under high pressure to furnish light for the convenience of passengers, and to enable dainty meals to be cooked in the kitchens of the dining-cars.
The oil refineries, upon receiving the crude petroleum, set out to recover as much paraffin as they could. ”

“ And even if the supply of petroleum were far less limited than the experts estimate it to be, even if there were enough of it to last for many decades to come, the fact that it is practically the one lubricant of the industrial world makes it a social crime to burn it as a substitute for coal. Without it, every railroad wheel would run hot and stop; the great turbines in our ships and modern power plants move on bearings that are smothered in petroleum oil. ”

“ For illuminating purposes it is the cheapest form of artificial light; as a fuel it is supplanting coal, where the latter is dear or its cost of carriage high, as on ocean steamers. Finally, the construction of light and convenient gasoline motors has given it great importance as a source of motive power. Natural gas is closely related to petroleum, but the supply has been so reduced by rapid and reckless use that it has but a limited economic outlook and is of local significance only. ”

“ The Carbon Oil-Company, 184 Water street, New York City, was the chief dealer in the illuminant. The entire petroleum-traffic in 1858 was barely eleven-hundred barrels, most of it obtained from Tarentum. A shipment of twelve barrels to New York in November, 1857, may be considered the beginning of the history of petroleum as an illuminator. How the baby has grown!
The price of “kerosene” or “carbon-oil,” always high, advanced to two dollars a gallon! Nowadays people grudge ten cents a gallon for oil vastly clearer, purer, better and safer! ”

“ Just before the ranch fever began, we struck oil—struck it in such immense quantities, and also found men so competent to make it fit for general use, that petroleum in some of its forms promised to be the leading export article of the United States. There was not a civilized quarter of the world in which one couldn’t find the American kerosene oil can. ”