Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-09-07
petroleum produced in the United

petroleum produced in the United
States since the inception of the in
dustry in 1889 will be of interest.
In the year referred to the total
production amounted to 2 900 bar
rels taken from Pennsylvania and
New York. In 1870 the total was
1850 Jas; in 1880 it was 2o,2S6,123
barrels; in 1890 it rose to 45,S22,-
672, while in 1896 the year of larg
est production,t the total was 6o,e6o,-
| 36l barrels. From these figures it
appears that the enormous amount
of S31.15o,5e5 barrels of crude pet
roleum has been taken out of the
rocks in the United States since
fCol. Drake drove the first oil
we'll in 1889 near Titusville, Pa. If
we allow sc cubic feet to one bar
rels of petroleum it amounts to a.
654,444,323 cubic feet; the sides of
cube to equal this amount would
be 1869 5 feet long. 1t would form
a square hoop whose sides would be
slightly more than $50 feet or a
pipe line with diameter of E 7 feet
| that would encircle the globe. If
we take the surface of Lake Erie to
be ten thousand square miles it
would be covered two tenths OF an
inch in depth, or reservoir with
an area of one square mile would
require to be I67 feet deep to con-
tain this amount.
In addition to the detailed Stats
tics of the production of the chief
fields, which have been largely an
ticipated in the columns of the Re-
porter, the report contains some in
teresting results of special investi-
cations undertaken in the oil fields
of Wyoming, Texas and Alaska.
Concerning the oil wells of the Papo
Agile river, ten miles southeast of
Lander, Fremont county, Wyo.,
the report says:
This field extends north and
west to within four miles of Lander,
distance of twelve or fifteen miles.
Its width varies greatly and can not
be accurately given since there are
no data to guide one in making an
estimate. On the east side il may
be possible to drill and search the
oil horizon three miles from the AK
is of the anticlinal, but two miles
will necessitate drilling to much
greater depth than it is usual to
drill for oil On the west side the
field may be extended as far as the
base of the White River Mountain,
but it is probable that the limit
will be foued within a distance of
three miles west of the anticlinal.
The surface of the central portion
of the oil field is very rough and
broken, and is cut into deep
gulches with precipitous hillsides
along the eastern and western Dor
ders, the country is more rolling
and marked with lodges of sand
Stone and shale that form ridges
paralelling the anticlinal.
This district is at present over
100 miles from any railroad. In
1881 DR.. Braf, ofOmaba, and asso
ciates purchased the oil claims and
did considerable surface work. In
1883 and 1884 they drilled three oil
wells. all of which were producers.
The company then purchased a
large number of iron barrels, and
commenced to market the oil at the
Union Pacific Railroad. On account
of keen competition of the Eastern
oil producers the first Wyoming oil
company had to abandon it's enter
prise. Since that time the wells
have remained packed; the oil that
flowed from the wells through leaks
has been utilized by the ranches for
miles about for lubricatlng pur-
poses, and to some extent by the
gold mines and the -four mills for
steam making. The geology ofthe
field is OF special interest since the
oil is found in the palezoic strata,
and in this respect resembles more
closely the oil fields of the Eastern
| United States than any other
Z ocky Mountain oil field The
structure of this field is an anticli-
nal with rocks dipping gently to the
east and very abruptly to the west.
The axis of the anticlinal form a
point near the east of Dallas to near
the northern limit of the field has
suffered heavy erosion, and is now
an anticlinal valley averaging a
quarter of mile in width through
which the Little .Papo AgIe river
flows. The thickness of the rocks
removed from the anticlinal agere-