The Bradford Oil District of Pennsylvania (Classic Reprint) PDF Download

Author: Charles an Ashburner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781330676509
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 22

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Book Description
Excerpt from The Bradford Oil District of Pennsylvania This well was situated on the Gilbert farm, two miles northeast of Bradford. "Slush" oil was found at a depth of 751 feet, and the producing sand was struck at 1110 feet in the month of November, 1871. The daily production was 10 barrels. From the time when the sand was found in the Foster Oil Company's well to December, 1874, no wells were drilled that amounted to anything. On December 6th, 1874, Messrs. Butts and Foster struck the oil sand in what is known as the Butts well, No. 1, on the Archy Buchanan farm, two and a half miles northeast of Bradford. This well started off with a daily production of 70 barrels, and was really the first well that attracted the attention of the oil men to the possibility of finding a profitable oil district in the county. The unparalleled growth of the field is evidenced by the fact that in December, 1878, four years from the completion of the Butts well, the average daily production of crude oil was 23,700 barrels, or about 4/7ths of the total daily production of the State of Pennsylvania. Geological Position of the Bradford Producing Sand. - The early drillers in the territory regarded the oil as coming from the same geological horizon as that occupied by the "Third Sand" along Oil Creek, in Venango County. Inconsistent as this idea was with known facts in the geology of Northwestern Pennsylvania, the producing sand was named the "Third Sand," and the determination of a "First" and "Second" sand was left to the driller. No careful examination was made of the "sand pumpings," but from the way the drill pierced the strata two sand horizons were located. The upper sand, about 600 feet above the producing sand, was named the "First Sand;" the lower one, 300 feet above the same horizon, was named the "Second Sand." The opinion which had been frequently expressed by expert geologists that there was little probability of finding the Oil Creek sands north of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was denied on the basis of what the driller regarded as overwhelming evidence. As far as nomenclature went the comparison between the Venango and McKean County oil rocks seemed perfect. Along the Allegheny River, in the former county, the drill had proven the existence of three distinct sand horizons producing petroleum, which had long been known as the "First," "Second," and "Third" sands, the latter being the most productive. One mile above Oil City, in Venango County, the top of the "Third Sand" is 528 feet above ocean level. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.