New-York tribune., 1902-05-20
THE GAINES OIL FIELD.
SITUATED IN TIOGA COUNTY. PENN
BOUNDARIES AND PRODUC-
TIVENESS

Washington. May 10 CspeciaD.-The Gaines oil
field, described by Myron l. Fuller in Part III
OF the xxIId Annual Report of the United States
Geological Survey, in press is located near
the western boundary of Tioga Coz nty. Penn. at
a point seventeen and one-half miles south of the
New-York State line. II extends for about three
miles along the borders of Pine Creek in a slightly
northeast-southwest direction. passing the
villages OF watrous. Gaines and Manhattan, in
Gaines Township. The field lies about fifty miles
east and ten miles south OF the well known Brad
ford oil field. and from twenty twenty-five miles
east OF the Allegany field of New-York. 1t is OF
special interest being twenty miles nearer the
Auegany front than any other producing field in
northern Pennsylvania.
Pine Greek. a branch of the Susquehanna River.
along which the Gaines oil field extends, flows
eastward snd southeastward from Potter. through
Tioga and Lycoming counties Part of its
is through deep gorge, sometimes almost merit
Ing the name canyon. The gorge is well devel-
oped In the vicinity OF the Gaines OIL field, which
point the creek bottom is more than thousand
feet below the surrounding uplands. Its tribu-
tarfes-Elk. Long and Phoenix rivers-Iikewise flow
In deep. steep sided valleys. Near Gaines the walls
of the valleys rise than one thousand feet
In distance OF less than a mile. but when the
cresrs OF the ridges between the streams are once
reached they are found be quite level miles.
The Gaines oil neld includes two distinct pools
separated by an unproductive of a little
half a mile The westerly, Watrous pool yields
Us Oh from a nne grained sandstone, known to
o4Illers as the Atwell sand. The easterly or Man
haitian pool derives its oil from a series of shales
ehaly sandstones, etc, known driIlers as the
Blossburg formation. The length of the
Watrous producing belt is a little less than two
miles, and its greatest breadth near watrous) is
from GOO TO 800 feet. II is cut four times by the
meanders of Pine Creek. The Manhattan pool
roughly oval in outline, has east-west diameter
Of about half mile the north-south diameter be
ing slightly greater
In 1884. 1855 and 1856 wells We're put down near
Gaines with slender results In 1898 successful
well was sunk upon the Atwell farm east of
Natrous, and the name Atwell was given to the
producing sand found depths of from 200 TO
nearly 800 feet Almost Immediately the Blossburg
formation. about two miles the and 200
feet above the Atwell sand, discovered. In
1900 the wells in the AtwelI sand increased
nearly seventy. and the producing wells in the
Blossburg formation increased TO about thirty. In
the Atwen sand the wells generally had small
but fairly constant yield; in the Bossburg forna-
ton many driIlings resulted in failure. and the
flows, large at first, declined rapidly. and in many
cases were soon exhausted The wells in the
Watrous pool are too much crowded; In several
instances they about one hundred feet from
one another, whereas to secure the most oil at
the least cost they should be least three hun
dred or four hundred feet apart. The oil of the
Atwell sand Mr.. Fuller thinks, probably belongs
TO single pool the differences in rate and amount
OF flow being due to differences in porosity and
fneness of the sandstone. The Atwell sand be-
longs to the ''black sand" group of the oil drers
and is Devonian in age and in its general char
ecteristics it closely resembles the sands of the
Bradford field of Pennsylvania and of the Allegany
field of New-Yorb. The Bossburg formation.
as it is called by the drillers, is not single bed
mating sands. shales and shay limestones. The
variation in the production of adjacent wells is
OF with a fow OF FIVE hundred barrels day. and
was was, giving one % hundred barrels day when BIoss-
streak" a few hundred feet away and then No.
No. started with twenty-one hundred barrels a
day. and then fell off TO thirty barrels day in
least thirty thousand barrels. which would occupy
to @ BEEN SI sqsS roSb the the oil Is Of e
grained sandstone. which could not hold more
sumed here in calculating the minimum Size OF
dhe Pool On this snPpostioR ion the oil you'd be
sandstone Assuming the bed OF sandstone CON
We Should find that the pool would have an area
OF q, az square yards, or little less than seven
There is no difference in the quality of the oil
fS5sped from the Atwen sand and from the
Is cents less barre! than the Tiona oil but com
3 n the fWe oil sand the oil
erteys the wells very slowly. Pumping has been
burg formation a11s the oil TO the surface in
Ayerage flows from the Blossburg formation
nave nave been been from three TO ten times as great as
wells wells show much more prolonged and regular
reaches tie surface free from In the tne xoi p
OF the Blossburg formation ii is largely mixed
with salt water. The oil from the various com
panies OF the Gaines field is piped nearly due
eouth by the South Penn Oil Company TO the
trunk OF the Tide Water Pipe Line some sixteen
miles from Gaines; il is disposed of by the
John Ellis Company, OF Warren Penn, which re-
moves IL in tank
p The az. aayeTage contract price paid by the South
Penn OIL Company is said to be 65 cents a foot
for drilling the wells. Natural gas is usually
1ound separated from the oil in the Atwen sand
Blossburg formation the is largely incor-
porateo with the OIL The supply of gas from the
@sllS OF the AfWell sand / barely sufficient for
fuel for the boilers required in pumping though
Gaines and Watrous. of pumping hours The
gas from the Blossburg formation is Insufficient
lof use or any KIND. Local gas pools have also
Gaines field. - 80
The producing portion of the AtwelI sand lies
epolt midway between the top of a slope and
the bottom or the adjoining depression. Below il
lies belt OF salt water, and Immediately above
as a. zone producing gas. The oil occurs several
hundred Feet below the limit which surface
waters have penetrated the rock otherwise the oil
the pools OF the Gaines field appear to be definitely
fixed by the surrounding dry wells and bv the
Wes along the border of the producing belt itself
On the northern lower edge of the prodncing
southern edge low in oil
ana high in gas; and the well known general rule
is tnat salt W ater. oil and gas found in the
order named In the same rock usually show the
limits Of proouctiveness New wells sunk in tho
Gaines held are meeting with small success With
regard 10 the future of the Gaines oil field and
ls sleinty. Mr. Fuller concludes that the wells
OF the Atwen sand will probably continue to nro-
cuce oil In limited amounts for some time 70
come: that small flows might possibly be oh
sainea by limited number of new wells in the
improbable, that further 'gushers' NAV be fou1d
~ the blossburg formation. The probability