Daily Democrat and news. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1859-1864, 1862-02-17
The Pennxylyania Oil Region.

The Penpsyivania Oh Region.
The prodisious Quantities Of oil
thrown on the market by the Pcnusyl.
yania oil region have had the effect q
causing glut and reducing P'iees pc
low . naying standard. The following
paragraph from the Vennago (Pa.) Spec
tator. will illustrate this:
"lf q barrel of oil could be had Tor
nothing at this time it would not pay
ia New York the cost Of freight, com
mi. sion. &c. Therefore, to ship oil 10
worse for the shipper than to throw it 10
the river. Remedy is: keep your wells
plugged till the market rises; and IN
stead of sending your oil to eastern mar
kets for nothing, it will be sold at the
wells for remunerstive prices IN less
than thirty days." :,
Still the product goes on, and the
stock accumulates too fast to warrant
its being stored away to wait tor rise.
The Titusville pa. Gazette gives the
amount Of the oil shipped from that
point for the week before last at Is, 1853
barrels, and that paper also says that the
depots at the shipping stations are SO
full that storage cannot be found, nor
can the railroad get it out Of the way
nearly as fast as it goes forward from
the wells. The recommendation OF the
venango Spectator, to plug up the wells,
seems to have been tried at various
places in consequence Of the low price
of oil. But other wells are yielding,
and one we'll, the Van Slike, has in
creased from 500 to 800 barrels daily.
The following condensation of some oil
marvels will assist the reader to under.
stand the sub eject:
"a recent visitor, who spent q week
IN the Pennsylvania oil regions, reports
that at Oil City, at the mouth OF Oh
Creek, on the right bank Of the Ale
pheny, there were over 10000 barrels Of
oil on the wharf awaiting shipment to
Pittsburgh. At one Of the great dow
ing wells ia large cisterns were coun.
ted, holding 10000 barrels Of oil. The
Empire well is 600 feet deep, and the
gas forces the oil through hose up to q
reservoir 800 feet higher, and saves
hauling. Thus the pressure OF the gas
carries the oil 900 feet. The writer
says:
"The chief OF the veins is the Phil
lips, which was struck two months since
and yields 5000 barrels daily. Like
the others it is fitted with stop. cock
and only allowed to run as the oil car
be taken care OF. The stop-cock is in
serted in the tubing, which is sunk 81
soon az an oil vein is struck. The bore
Of this we'll is FIVE inches in diameter
and when the vein was struck torrent
OF oil burst far above the derrick, and
three days passed before it could b.
stopped and brought uuder control, al
the time the stream from it running into
OIL Greek.
1.-The lands here are not sold, bu
rented. The land owner usually receives
half the oil. The Phillips we'll Wal
leased for a quarter of the oil delivered
in barrels, and now that oil is down ano
barrels up, it would be ruinous to deliv
er the barrels. Another we'll is leased
tor half the oil, but the land owner is tc
take bis share only on Saturdays. The
we'll yields 500 barrels daily, but, As it j,
impossible to move more than tina,
amount in a day for lack of teams suffi.
cient, the owners get only 800 barrels {
week, and the person leasing 1000
About 1000 barrels are daily sen,
way, and as six barrels make an aver
age load, and from two to FIVE days are
required for q round trip, one can easily
estimate the enormous number Of team
employed. One party alone pays s., OO(
day for teams to the various railroads
the nearest point being twenty mile.
distant.
"Flcets Of fatboats are building to q
down the river with the spring freshets
They are forty to eighty feet long, -four
teen feet wide, and two feet deep. They
are to be drawn up alongside the flow
ing wells, and by hose will be run full
and then fosted down to Pittsburg, tn,
oil being thus taken to the refineries j,
bulk, and the expense of barrels, which
is from *2 to 1925, being saved.
-" Hundreds of thousands of dollars
, have been lost by sinking wells wher,
no oil vein has been struck. One vel
has reached the depth OF s75 feet, an.
etill the boring goes on. A p.acard on
the derrick says, To Oil or to China.
A paragraph in an Erie paper men
tions that crude petroleum oil sells a
Tidioute for twenty cents per barrel
The trouble now appears to be to fiud
market for all the oil that is produced
but the energy with which the matte
? has been taken up by good bushes
men warrants the beliefthat it will sool
force an adequate market. 1t is no,
sold at retail to an extraordinary exten,
The enormous quantities Of this oil, Ia
ge'her with the great supplies OF lar
2 hA