Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-06-05
PETROLEUM OIL.
Some Interesting Statistics of the OIL Busi'
ness Of the United States.

some interesting ol VII busi-
ness Of the United States.
A magazine writer, in considering the
oil question in the United States, says
that oil appears to have been an object
of research to the aborigines ages ago,
since in the oil regions of Western
Pennsylvania are found pits or wells ap-
parently dug for the purpose of collect
ing the oil, carefully timbered, and
affording from the growth of the forest
upon the site evidences of an antiquity
of from five hundred to one thousand
years. As early as 1919, in boring for
brine on the Muslkingum river, in Ohio,
from a depth of four hundred feet were
obtained large quantities-of mineral oil,
which was source of great annoyance
to the salt-makers. The oil could not
be burned, as no lamps could be found
adapted to the purpose.
In August, 1859, well was sunk by
Drake, superintendent of the Pennsyl-
vania Oil Company, from which, at
depth of seventy-two feet, a supply of
oil amounting to ten barrels or four hun
dred gallons day was obtained, which
was sold for fifty-ive cents a gallon.
The successful trial was soon followed
by many others not less so. The history
of the wild excitement and speculation
which followed this discovery, and the
great accession of wealth to the region,
is familiar to all. Wells were soon sunk
which yielded from one hundred to as
much as two thousand barrels of oil
daily, often without the labor of pump
ing. Of one we'll it is recorded that it
afforded 100000 barrels of oil in q little
over two years, while another is said to
have given not less than 500, 900 barrels
in twelvemonth. Petroleum was soon
discovered, not only over a wide district
in Pennsylvania, but in Eastern Ohio,
and in parts of West Virginia and Ken
lucky, and even in Indiana, as well as in
Western Canada. In 1860 the produc-
tion rose to 100000 barrels of forty gal
Ions each, and for the decade ending
with 1870 it amounted to not less than
35, 273, 900 barrels of crude oil. OF this
by far the greater part came from Penn
sylvania for of the 6,500,000 barrels
produced in 1870, not less than 5, $50, 600
were from that State, the production of
about three thousand wells, which is an
average of only about five barrels daily
for each well.
The wells in Venango county, where
this industry began, were generally from
six to eight hundred feet in depth, but
with the partial exhaustion of these, the
scene of operations has been removed tc
more southern districts, where the oil
supplies are found at greater depths
and the wells in Butler county, now the
great seat of production, are from l, 20(
to 1,500 feet deep.
The abundance of the Pennsylvania
petroleum, and the skillful manner ir
which it is refined, have led to 8 general
expectation of these products to every
part of the civilized world. Already il
1861 we find the shipments of petroleum
from the United States to foreign port'
equal to nearly $4,000 barrels of forty
gallons each, and for the ten years end
ing with 1870, the expectation was Ia,
465, 900 barrels. BY far the greater par
of this was shipped in the refined state
and its average price for the term of tel
years was estimated at twenty-five cent
a gallon, thus representing an aggregat,
value of over $144, 900, 900. The increas
in the amount exported has been regula
! and constant. That for the calenda
| year 1870 was 3,495,S00 barrels TO
1872, 3,754,060; for 1873, 5,937, ,041
{ and for 1874, 5,878, ,578 barrels, of whicl
/ about nine-tenths is refined oil.
, Even at the present reduced price
, the annual value of the petroleum pre-
, duct of the country is very great. Th
/ export for 1874, chiefly of refined oil, a
, the mean price of 1900 cents the gallon
equals $50, 825, ,26S. The present annuo
consumption of the United States is es
timated at 100000 barrels of refine
petroleum, which, added to the expol
g for 1874, gives total of 7,37S,000 bal
+ rels of refined oil. The estimated pre-
D duction of crude oil for 1874 is not les
=, than 10,6S7, $3.50 barrels, or 29,2S2 daily
e Already in 1870, when the productio
: was considerably less than at present,
g was said that the petroleum wells of th
. United States yielded in a week a
, amount of oil greater than the entir
annual production of the whale fsherie
: of New England at the time of the
I greatest prosperity.