The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-08-18
The Petroleum Fields Of Pennsylvania.

the HBnt OF tne WOrlu III Jne DrOaupsJ
sense, being found in the cabin of tie
pioneer, in the subterranean haunt of
the miner and in the mansions of the
refined and wealthy. Even the barba-
rians and half civilized races nave
adopted it because of its excellent illu-
minating qualities and its marvellous
cheapness. American petroleum
lights the dwellings of Jerusalem, the
rock temples of the Upper Nile, the
Indian bungalow and the homes and
temples of China and Japan.
Some idea of its relative cheapness
when compared with the old illumina-
tors may be obtained when it is stated
that it can he bought at retail of the
ordinary grocer at from ten to fifteen
cents per gallon, whereas in the old
days sperm oil and camphene sold at
from seventy-6ve cents to one dollar
and fifty per gallon. This cheapness
has driven out of the market every
other form of Illuminating fluid, and
it is of great Importance to the world
that has become so accustomed to its
use that the supply shall be maintained
or something equally cheap and avail
able be found as substitute. Its an.
nual production has arisen from few
hundred barrels in 1859 to thirty mil
lions in 1882. Yet in all that time the
demand has so near kept pace with the
supply that the immense surplus of
upwards of thirty million barrels now
above ground would not answer for
two years supply if the production
were cut off 1t ranks third in value
as an article of export from the United
States, breadstuffs and cotton alone ex-
ceeding it. When we reflect that
wheat and cotton are the productions
of a vast expanse of our territory and
that petroleum is the product of half
a dozen counties in one corner of our
own State the forty millions annually
which our own petroleum exports
represent simply seem astonishing.
How long can this immense supply
be kept up9 This question is being
asked with a good deal Of earnestness
and anxiety by the thoughtful men
who have embarked their all in the
business. While it is quite possible
that petroleum is being constantly
generated, yet the process is so slow as
to be OF no practical value in keeping up
the supply. The history of the petro-
leum developments teaches that the
rich fields are practically exhausted in
from one to five years after being
opened. There are many of the rich
est oil farms along Oil Creek and its
tributaries which at present are not
producing sirgle barrel of oil, while
m.ny more furnish ohly the smallest
modicum of their former production.
1t is only question of time when
the Pennsylvania oil fields will be
among the things of the past. How
much time will be required to exhaust
them at the present rate of production?
This cannot, of course, be answered
with any degree of certainty, but there
are many Of the veteran oil men who
do not believe it will take near as
many years to deplete the balance of
the Pennsylvania oil deposits at the
present rate of production as it has
taken to bring that production up to
its present status.
The drill has pretty effectually de-
fined the extent of the field in which
productive territory may he hoped for.
The southern limit of the oleaginous
belt may be said to be fixed by line
drawn from Kittanning, in Armstrong
county, to Saxonburgh, in Butler
county. The oil bearing rock at this
southern extremity of the field dips so
far below sea level that the oil was
either never generated here or else it
has been forced to higher levels by the
salt water contained in the rock. A
Gordon of wildcat wells which failed
to find anything but gas has beer,
drilled at various times and places in
Western Butler, Mercer, Central and
Western Crawford and Erie counties.
These experiments may be said to
have practically defined the Western
limits of the oil field. Coming East,
line drawn from Smethport, on the
north, to Leechburg, Armstrong coun-
ty, on the south, will nearly outline
the general course of Gordon of dry
holes and gas wells which have been
drilled near Wilcox and Milestone in
Elk county, Stump Creek in Jefferson
aud Leechburg in Armstrong and
which clearly limits the extension of
the field to the eastward. These ex-
periments, then, confne the product
i've territory to the counties of Butler
Armstrong, Clarion Venargo, Eastern
Crawford, Forest, Warren and Mex can
The available territory in the first five
named counties has already been prac,
tically exhausted, although it is quite
probable that number of small pools
of the Pithole and Bullun order may
yet be found in either of them. Nc
kean is on the decline, its productive
territory being clearly defined and
much more than half exhausted, leav
ing only Warren and Forest to yet be
tested for virgin territory. The great
deposits just being opened in Cherry
Grove township, Warren county, art
now supposed to comprise about 2,5OC
acres, leaving good deal of lighter
territory to be tested in Southeastern
Warren and all of the Eastern Fores,
practically undrilled. But at the rat,
at which drilling is now prosecuted il
will take less than two years to drill
over the whole field sufficiently to tel
pretty near what is there. In Fores
the Grandins, L. +. Watterson, tn,
Enterprise Transit Company and othe
wealthy landowners hold large tracts
which they can keep from the drill 70
a long time if they see fit, which the,
| will probably do if the price remains a
low as at present, There are, therefore
not a few old operators who are con
hdently counting on the present Cherr,
Grove Development as the last bi,
| field that will ever be opened up to tn
drilling public, they expecting, o
course, that the large tracts in Fores
county above described will be he'll
and operated leisurely by the preseu
lproprietors. Civil engineers like Whig
ley and Opperman have already undel
l tnUan tA t,rnsah