History of the petroleum industry in the United States
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[edit] Before the Drake well
(See Early uses of petroleum)
Native Americans had known of the oil in western Pennsylvania, and had made some use of it for many years before the mid 19th century. Interest grew substantially in the mid-1850s as scientists reported on the potential to manufacture kerosene from crude oil, if a sufficiently large oil supply could be found.
Salt was a valuable commodity, and an industry developed near salt springs in the Ohio River Valley, producing salt by evaporating brine from the springs. Wells were sunk at the salt springs to increase the supply of brine for evaporation. Some of the wells were hand-dug, but salt producers also learned to drill wells by percussion methods. In a number of locations in western Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, oil and natural gas came up the wells along with the brine. The oil was mostly a nuisance, but some salt producers saved it and sold it as illuminating oil. In some locations, enough natural gas was produced to be used as fuel for the salt evaporating pans.[1] Early salt brine wells that produced byproduct oil included the Thorla-McKee Well of Ohio in 1814, and wells at Burning Springs, West Virginia by 1836.
[edit] The Drake well, Titusville, Pennsylvania
On August 28, 1859 George Bissell and Edwin L. Drake made the first successful use of a drilling rig on a well drilled especially to produce oil, at a site on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania.
The Drake well is often referred to as the "first" commercial oil well, although that title is also claimed for wells in Azerbaijan, Ontario, West Virginia, and Poland. However, before the Drake well, oil-producing wells in the United States were wells that were drilled for salt brine, and produced oil and gas only as accidental byproducts. An intended drinking water well at Oil Springs, Ontario found oil in 1858, a year before the Drake well, but it had not been drilled for oil. Historians have noted that the importance of the Drake well was not in being the first well to produce oil, but in attracting the first great wave of investment in oil drilling, refining, and marketing:
- "The importance of the Drake well was in the fact that it caused prompt additional drilling, thus establishing a supply of petroleum in sufficient quantity to support business enterprises of magnitude.[2]
[edit] Appalachian Basin
The success of the Drake well quickly led to oil drilling in other locations in the western Appalachian mountains, where oil was seeping to the surface, or where salt drillers had previously found oil fouling their salt wells. During the American Civil War, the oil-producing region spread over much of western Pennsylvania, up into western New York state, and down the Ohio River valley into the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and the western part of Virginia (now West Virginia). The Appalachian Basin continued to be the leading oil-producing region in the United States through 1904.[3]
The principal product of the oil in the 1800s was kerosene, which quickly replaced whale oil for illuminating purposes in the United States. Originally dealing in whale oil which was widely used for illumination, Charles Pratt (1830-1891) of Massachusetts was an early pioneer of the natural oil industry in the United States. He was founder of Astral Oil Works in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, New York. Pratt's product later gave rise to the slogan, "The holy lamps of Tibet are primed with Astral Oil." He joined with his protégé Henry H. Rogers to form Charles Pratt and Company in 1867. Both companies became part of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil in 1874.
[edit] Lima-Indiana District
(See Indiana Gas Boom)
[edit] Mid-Continent
The Mid-continent area is an area generally including Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas away from the Gulf Coast. The first commercially successful oil well drilled in Kansas was the Norman No. 1 near Neodesha, Kansas, on November 28, 1892.
- Corsicana, Texas, 1896, Texas, plus 44 million barrels (7,000,000 m³)
- McCamey, 1928, Baker No. 1., Texas.
[edit] Oklahoma
Oil was discovered at Bartlesville and Burbank in 1897. But the initial discoveries created no great excitement until the discovery gusher of the Glenn pool in 1906. The Glenn discovery came when Gulf Coast production was decling rapidly, and the operators were eager for new areas to drill. The increased drilling resulted in major discoveries at Cushing in 1912 and Healdton in 1913.[4]
- Greater Seminole, 1926, Oklahoma, plus 200 million barrels (31,800,000 m³)
- Oklahoma City, No. 1 Discovery Well, 1928, Oklahoma. The Mary Sudik No. 1, "Wild Mary Sudik", gusher did not blow until March 25, 1930—she sprayed an estimated 3,000 barrels (480 m3) an hour (133 L/s) for the next 11 days.
[edit] East Texas
The largest oil field in the lower 48 states, the East Texas oil field, was not discovered until 1930, when wildcatter Columbus Marion Joiner (more commonly known as "Dad" Joiner) drilled the Daisy Bradford No. 3 well, in Rusk County, Texas.[5]
[edit] Gulf Coast
Capt. Anthony Francis Lucas, an experienced mining engineer and salt driller, drilled a well to find oil at Spindletop Hill. On the morning of January 10, 1901, the little hill south of Beaumont, Texas began to tremble and mud bubbled up over the rotary table. A low rumbling sound came from underground, and then, with a force that shot 6 tons of 4-inch (100 mm) diameter pipe out over the top of the derrick, knocking off the crown block, the Lucas Gusher roared in and the Spindletop oil field was born. Spindletop became the focus of frenzied drilling; oil production from the field peaked in 1902 at 17.4 million barrels, but by 1905 production had declined 90% from the peak.[6]
Spindletop Hill turned out to be the surface expression of an underground salt dome, around which the oil accumulated. The Spindletop gusher started serious oil exploration of the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, an area that had previously been dismissed by oil men. Other salt dome mounds were quickly drilled, resulting in discoveries at Sour Lake (1902), Batson (1904) and Humble (1905).[7]
The Standard Oil Company was slow to appreciate the economic potential of the Spindletop oil field, and the Gulf Coast generally, which gave greater opportunity to others; Spindletop became the birthplace of oil giants Texaco and Gulf Oil. Although in 1899 Standard Oil controlled more than 85% of the oil production in the older oil regions in the Appalachian Basin and the Lima-Indiana trend, it never controlled more than 10% of the oil production in the new Gulf Coast province.[8]
[edit] California
Indians had known of the tar seeps in southern California for thousands of years, and used the tar to waterproof their canoes. Spanish settlers also knew of the seeps, such as at Rancho La Brea (Spanish for Tar Ranch) in present-day Los Angeles.
Despite the abundance of well-known seeps in southern California, the first commercial oil well in California was drilled in Humboldt County, northern California in 1865.[9]
Some attempts were made in the 1860s to exploit oil deposits under tar seeps in the Ventura Basin of Ventura County and northeastern Los Angeles county. The early efforts failed because of complex geology, and, more importantly, because the refining techniques then available could not manufacture high-quality kerosene from California crude oil, which differed chemically from Pennsylvania crude oil.[10] Most California crude oil in the early years was turned into the less lucrative products of fuel oil and asphalt.
Oil production in the Los Angeles Basin started with the Los Angeles City oil field in 1893.
Oil in the San Joaquin Basin was first discovered at the Coalinga field in 1890. By 1901, the San Joaquin Basin was the main oil-producing region of California.
[edit] Rocky Mountains
The first commercial oil well in the Rocky Mountains was drilled near Canon City, Colorado in 1862. The wells in the Canyon City-Florence field, drilled near surface oil seeps, produced from fractures in the Pierre Shale.
- Bighorn Basin
- Denver Basin
- Green River Basin
- North Park (Colorado basin)
- Paradox Basin
- Piceance Basin
- Powder River Basin
- Raton Basin
- San Juan Basin
- Uinta Basin
[edit] Alaska
A Russian sea captain noted oil seeps along the shore of the Cook Inlet as early as 1853, and oil drilling began in 1898 in a number of locations along the southern coast of Alaska.[11] Production was relatively small, however, until huge discoveries were made on Alaska's remote North Slope.
Oil seeps on the North Slope have been known for many years, and in 1923, the federal government created US Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 to cover the presumed oil fields beneath the seeps. Some exploration drilling was done in the reserve during World War II and the 1950s, but the remote location deterred intensive exploration until the 1960s. The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, the largest oil field in the United States in terms of total oil produced, was discovered in 1968. Production began in 1977, following completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Through 2005, the field has produced 13 billion barrels of oil, and is estimated to contain another 2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Edgar Wesley Owen (1975) Trek of the Oil Finders, Tulsa, Okla.: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, p.9-10.
- ^ Edgar Wesley Owen (1975) Trek of the Oil Finders, Tulsa, Okla.: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, p.12.
- ^ Harold F. Williamson and others (1963) The American Petroleum Industry, 1899-1959, the Age of Energy, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, p.16.
- ^ Harold F. Williamson and others (1963) The American Petroleum Industry, 1899-1959, the Age of Energy, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, p.21-24.
- ^ James A. Clark and Michael Halbouty (1972) The Last Boom, New York: Random House, ISBN 0-394-48232-8.
- ^ Harold F. Williamson and others (1963) The American Petroleum Industry, 1899-1959, the Age of Energy, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, p.22.
- ^ W.A. Ver Wiebe (1950) North American and Middle Eastern Oil Fields, Wichita, Kans.: W.A. Ver Wiebe, p.147-148.
- ^ Harold F. Williamson and others (1963) The American Petroleum Industry, 1899-1959, the Age of Energy, Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern Univ. Press, p.7.
- ^ W.A. Ver Wiebe (1950) North American and Middle Eastern Oil Fields, Wichita, Kans.: W.A. Ver Wiebe, p.198.
- ^ Gerald T. White (1962) Formative Years in the Far West, New York: Appleton-Crofts, p.20.
- ^ W.A. Ver Wiebe (1950) North American and Middle Eastern Oil Fields, Wichita, Kans.: W.A. Ver Wiebe, p.232-236.
