Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-06-29
Bradford,s Enormous Yield.

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In highly commendatory article
on the Derrick Hand Book OF Petrol.
cum. the New York Commercial makes
curious mistake In quoting the total
production OF the Bradford field The
Commercial states that the Hand
Books estimate of the Bradford out
put since Its inception, is 100000, ,00C
barrels. The actual figures are great
deal nearer 200,000000 barrels. Inas-
much as the article has been freely
copied in several other papers. it may
be well to call attention to this error as
it tends somewhat to the discredit OF
the most wonderful oil field ever
known in this country.
The total amount of oil produced in
the Bradford field, without making
any estimate for waste, oil burned as
fuel ETC., but represented by pipe line
runs alone, from 1875 down to the
close of 1899, was 191 ,467672 barrels.
When it is considered that the total
yield of Pennsylvania oil, from the en-
tire producing regions of New York,
Pennsylvania West Virginia and
Southeastern Ohio from the days of
Colonel Drake down to the present
time amounts to 705.000, 900 barrels, the
Importance of the Bradford field as a
producing factor, is better recognized.
In other words, the great Northern
oil basin in the twenty-five years of
its highest productive existence, has
yielded up over 25 per cent OF all the
oil (classed as exclusively Pennsyl-
vania produc) thathas been produced
in the eastern oil region during the en-
tire forty years that have elapsed since
the first raj oil we'll was completed in
the Oil Creek valley, in 1852
The immense amount of over 19O,-
900 900 barrels, has come from drilling
81, ,126 wells, of which number less
than ten per cent were dry. The av-
erage yield for eacn productive well
drilled in the Bradford field is nearly
10000 barrels. This is almost an eX-
cat fulfillment of the estimate made by
Mr.. John F. CARL twenty years ago,
who, after experiments with the pro-
ducing possibilities of the Bradford
sand rock, gave it as his opinion that
the field would yield 1000 barrels to
the acre. At one well to every five
acres of ground it will be seen that
this estimate has been verified almost
precisely to barrel. What, however,
is close to the point, is the fact that
the Bradford field is still producing
oil, and is expected to do so for great
many years to come. Its output for
the present year will fall below 3,000,-
900 barrels, but this is greater than the
yield of the entire State of California
for the year 1899.
1t is not at all unreasonable to ex-
pect that the Bradford field will pro-
duce upwards of 2O0,OO0,O00 barrels of
oil before her career as an oil district
will be anywhere near finished. AS
pointed out in the Derrick Hand Book,
the total production of the Bradford
oil field would fill reservoir ten miles
long, one mile wide and forty feet
deep. To contain this amount of oil
would require 5,47S iron tanks of a
capacity of $4,000 barrels each.
When it is considered that the cost
Of all the wells drilled in the Bradford
field has not exceeded $4,000, 900, while
the producers have realized at least
5000, 900, 900 from the oil produced,
James Wilson Lees assertion in re-
gard to the country being worse off
han it was before Oil was discovered
will find few supporters in Mexican
county The Northern oil fields fur
lish most striking refutation of the
foolish sort Of talk that Lee and some
If his friends seem to delight so much
% indulge in.
The Allegany field has produced oy-
IT 33,000,000 barrels OF oil from 1883
wells, which is an average to date of
,ver 5000 barrels for each productive
we'll. The aggregate production of
Bradford and Allegany has been neaf-
y 225,OOOO0O barrels. Nearly one
bird of the total yield of the Pennsyl-
7ania oil regions has come from the |
,reat black sand fields of the North
ast. The total area of productive ter
itory in these two districts covers less
han 100000 acres, and could all be
ontained in district less than six
cen miles square.-Oil City Derrick.