Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-06-26
OIL NEWS.
New Wells and observation-disclosures About
the Producing Wells.
he

Sistersville, w. Va, June 25-Dur-
ing the past few months the papers re-
presenting the. interests of the Standard
Oil Co. in various parts of the country
have been publishing statements to the
effect that the great octo pus could not,
in view of the conditions of supply and
demand in the markets Of the world,
advance the price of the oleaglnous
fluid to higher price than it is at
present, which is Sc cents a barrel
The publications which have made
these assertions also have printed stor-
les to the effect that instead of the pro-
duction falling off each month. as has
been patent to the careful observer in
the oil fields, it has been on the in
crease and that sufficient oil has been
produced to supply the trade in all
parts of the world. There seems to be
screw loose somewhere, as the state
ments which are published by law each
month Of the pipe line transactions
show right along that instead of the oil
fields of the United States holding up
as the papers subsidized by the Stand
az would have one to believe, they
have been declining and there has been
times during the past year when the
great lIuSt was dt It's wills 6llu 10 Invent
some scheme to get hold of enough oil
to fill the contract which it had IT,
ready made without running the price
up to an out of sight point.
The fact of the matter at the present
time is that the fields of the United
States are not producing nearly as
much oil as is being consumed and I'M
| less there is very large field opened
! up some time in the very near future
tn price of the oleaglnous fluid will
have to advance considerably in order
to compel the operators and producers
| to develop their property which at the
present time is lying idle for the sim
pie reason that it is much cheaper to
pay rentals than it is to take a chance
on drilling dry hole. From the time
of the drilling of the first we'll many
years ago by Drake up to the present
the oil industry has had a remarkable
history. Booms in oil have occurred,
and periodical increases in production
have ensued, but always in the end the
pools which increased the production,
fell off and left it where it was before
until at the present time the question
which is paramount in the minds of
these engaged in the business is where
will the next field be? to which ques
! ton there seems to be no answer
Not only is it a fact that the present
oil producing districts of the United
States are slowly declining in produc-
ton. but the consumption of the fluid
is becoming greater each year. The
last eight years has been the oil trade
with foreign countries expanded fully
| 100 per cent. and the expansion is still
increasing while our own consumption
| for the past year was over 50,000.000
barrels, also an increase of about dou
BILE what it had been during the same
period. The question now is whether
during the next eight years the con-
sumption of oil will continue to adj
| vance as rapidly as it has during the
past in the same number of years and
where will the oil come from.
| The total production of the fields Of
the United States during 1897 was in
| the neighborhood of $4,000, 000 barrels
of crude petroleum, and of this amount
| the district known as producing Penn
| svlvania oil, including West Virginia,
| New York and Pennsylvania had to its
credit in round numbers about 50, 0G0,-
| 600 barrels: the fields of Colorado came
| to the front with about 800 900: Wyom-
| ing. 30.0C0 Kansas, 100000: California.
1900 600 and Ohio and Indiana which
produce a very inferior grade Of oil had
| 26. 900 900 to their credit, while during
| the same period it was over 5000, 0C0
| gallons crude 100000 900 Illuminating
| oil and "a COO goo miscellaneous With
| a stock reported at 10,5S2.378 barrels,
| there remained at the end of the year
| in round numbers about 50G000 600 bar
| rels for our own use. which is the least
| that has ever been known in the his
| tory of the business.
| It is certain that with the results OBJ
| tanned last year that the previous &C.
| centricities of OF, fields were not dupli-
| Gated nor did any of the prolific dis
| tricts which marked the early history
Of the business spring up to stop the
| decrease which the constant drawing
| on the stocks above ground caused.
| None of those discovered gave promise
| Of being very large producers and but
very few of them even reached a stable
production, while great many of them
| only held up a very short time and
| since have been constantly declining
| Since 1891 there have been no phenomi
nal fields such as the Bradford, Mac
| Donald and Sistersvllle, all the other
pools including Big Sandy, Cherry
| Grove, Elk Fork, Whisky Run, etc,
being mere flashes in the pan. In adj
| diticn to this nearly all the oil fields in
| the upper country have lost their pres
| tige and there is PRACTICAL nothing
now at Butler Oil Creek, Pithole. Allie
| gheny, Clarion. Mexican county, etc.
| compared to what they were at one
time in the history Of the oil business,
| having lost their prestige and the pro-
| ducts from the other fields are spas
modic.
Despite the fact that the aggregate
| output of OIL from the Pennsylvania
| fields during last year were greater
| than million and a quarter barrels
| from 1 geo less wells than the year be-
| fore, ii still fell greatly short of the
amount necessary to fill the demand
| and the stocks had to be called on. The
| different sensational flashes from the
| small pools opened up during the year
were Of short duration and instead of
| making money for the producer, only
| caused him TO lose a great deal more
! in the effort to locate something good.
| In New York and PENNSYLVANIA as
| well as Ohio, some of the old fields ex-
| tended their limits little but not
| enough to be of any consequence,
! West Virginia moved to the front with
| extensions of old fields and pools and
at the present time offers the greatest
advantages to the producer for future
| devlopments. The most important and
| remarkable pool onened M during the