Washington County, Ohio - The Oil Industry, 1902

The Oil Industry

The History Since Cow Run - Operations in Each Township - Drilling - Shooting - PuMPrNG - Accidents - Operation - Leasing - Capital Invested in Washington County - The Future Prospects.

Less than a half centur)- ago the oil territory of Washington County comprised but a few farms, situated in the valley of a small stream, known to all oil men as Cow Run. The wells were drilled in the crudest manner, many of them by the old spring-pole method. Tlie tools in use were so light that the "toolie" could easily carry them to a blacksmith shop half a mile away to have them repaired. And when oil was found it was barreled at the well and carted for miles over the roughest country roads to the Ohio River, where it was shipped to some Eastern market. The following, taken from an old notebook, will give some idea of the cost of marketing a barrel of crude oil:

Thus, it can be understood that even after many months of drilling, the dauntless operator was yet in the same dilemma as the lirshman with his pig, which he headed for Cork to get to Dublin and declared it was much less trouble to raise than to get to miarket. Yet the possibilities of the business were so great that it brought in the field men of the very highest order of business ability; men whose motto was to act, and no matter what the difficulties were, no sooner were they discovered than they were mastered. And by their efforts they have brought the crudest industry to the most systematic and important in our county.

The producing territory has gradually extended from Old Cow Run until it has reached almiost every part of our county; at least it is necessary to study it by townships to realize the extent of the developments.

Tlius, it can be seen that from a half-dozen farms with a very small area of production the industry has now extended to over 500 farms, with thousands of acres of developed territory. But this could never have been done without vast improvements in drilling, shooting and pumping the wells, as well as transporting the oil to market.

The first improvement was the introduction of steam power for drilling ; then, as oil was found to exist at greater depth, we see the stately 80-foot derrick in the place of the pole derrick, and the small drilling tools have changed until now we find on the end of a 2,000-foot cable a 60-foot stem of two tons weight, with long stroke jars and heavy bit of 400 pounds weight, so that four good men can send the bit into the Berea sand at a depth of 2,000 feet in a month of 30 days or even less.

Invention and skill in drilling has made it possible to find the oil-bearing rock, no matter at what depth Nature may have hidden it. But many places where oil was found in the right formation, the pump failed to take it out in paying quantities, and some ingenious operator suggested "blast it with rock powder;" no sooner said than done, and the results more than paid for the expense. If powder is good, nitro-glycerine will be better, until the shooting of a well is the rule, unless it should flow or show by some signs that it will pump 40 or so barrels per day, naturally.

were first drilled in, they showed so little oil that they would not pay for the pumping. In some fields, wells are found that will not pump five barrels per day, naturally; but after they are shot they will pump 50 barrels per day for months, and when they decrease again in their production a second shot will sometimes bring them back almost to their first production.

The glycerine is lowered into the well in long cans or "shells" as they are called, mostly about eight feet long and containing about 20 quarts to the shell. Sometimes the shell is not filled full, but when the sandrock is very hard two or three shells are put in, and in extreme cases as much as 200 quarts have been used. Upon the last shell is placed a cap, and when everything is ready a piece of iron called the "go-devil'" is dropped in the well ; this explodes the cap, which in turn explodes the glycerine.

Sometimes the glycerine is exploded by a jack-squib, which is a small shell filled with about a half a pint of glycreine and a time fuse attached; this fuse is lighted and the shell dropped in the well. When the fuse burns to the gl}-cerinie the explosion will follow. The last few years the electric shot has helped in the fact "that in exploding the glycerine the casing was often so torn that it took many days to get the well in shape again, and sometimes it was destroyed entirely; but when an insulated wire is attached to the last shell, all the casing can be drawn from the well and the shot exploded by the electric spark, and then the casing can be put back again.

Tlie force of the explosion seems to rend the rock for many feet around, and make crevices, all of which terminate in the shot hole; then when the well is pumped the oil from quite a distance around will continually fill up the shot hole and in this way keep a supply on hand all the time for the pump. Otherwise there would be so little in the shot hole that the pump could scarcely work.

with the gas engine. In early times a boiler and engine were required at every well; a little later a boiler was placed in some convenient location and steam lines run to tlie engines that were left at each well, thus requiring an immense amount of fuel and labor to keep the wells pumping. And when a well got below five or six barrels per day the income would scarcely justify the expense.

NoKv, when a new lease is developed, a suitable location is selected for a gas engine and power house. A good 25-horsepower gas engine can be bought for less than $500, a double eccentric power engine for as much more, both of which should be placed upon as solid a foundation as possible. The work of placing the timbers, building the power-house and engine-house will be about $500 more, making the little plant cost about $1,500.

By means of swings, rod-lines can be run out from the power in every direction to wells on any ordinary lease of two or three hundred acres, so that as many as 75 wells have been pumped from one power. The fuel for the engine, of course, is gas taken direct from the casing head and conducted to the engine, and is exploded in the cylinder on opposite sides of the piston alternately.

The actual cost of the pumping expenses is reduced to a mere nominal sum ; the gas otherwise would be a waste product. The amount required to run a 25-horsepower gas engine is scarcely more than that required to run an ordinary cooking stove, and the attention required is so little that the leaseman can give his tin:ie to other work, as it is aistomary everywhere to go to the engine in the morning and oil and start it, and it very seldom requires any further attention until time to shut it downi in the evening; its mechanism is so simple that any ordinary person can learn its requirements in one week's time.

If a lease is already equipped and adjacent territory is found on which the wells are not over 600 feet deep and will produce one barrel a day of white sand oil, it will be a profitable investment to drill for the same at the present price of oil, $1.30 per barrel. Or if a lease of 50 wells has produced sufificient oil to pay for itself and then is making but onehalf barrel per day, or even one-fourth of a barrel per day, it is good property so long as the price of oil is above $1 per barrel.

So it is certain that the little gas engine has brought into active and profitable operation territory that only a few years ago was of no value whatever.

Shooting wells is, of course, a very hazardous business; the shooter is in danger all the time; but probably the most accidents occur at the time the shells are lowered in the well; if the well should flow while the shells are being lowered into it they will, of course, be thrown out quickly, and in falling to the derrick floor will explode, and very often before the shooter can get far enough away to sa\e his life. I was an eye-witness once when the shooter dropped a 20-quart shell into a well in which he had already lowered 20 quarts, and 20 more quarts were in cans on the derrick floor. The explosion followed' very quickly and blew the casing out of the well, also the top of the derrick off, but did not explode the glycerine that was on the derrick floor. As for the crew and shooter, how they ran 200 feet, while that shell was falling 600 feet, was a mystery, but they did, and no one was injured.

The most disastrous accident in our county was at Whipple, when a jack-squib was dropped in the well, and by some unexplained cause was thrown out upon the derrick floor; when a number of bystanders went up to see the result of the shot, the squib exploded and killed seven of the party.

Operation

are the legal owners of ]l'illiams Farm Oil Co., Wells No. I and up. on Williams Farm. Marietta Township, Washington County. State of Ohio, including the royalty interest, and until further notice you will credit all oil as per directions below.

The Buckeye Pipe Line Company - M'ACKSBURG DIVISION - is hereby authorized until further notice, to receive oil from wells for transportation for said parties severally in the proportions named, subject to the following conditions :

FIRST. - Payment of a transportation charge of 20 cents per barrel ; the point of delivery of said oil shall be at the option of The Buckeye Pipe Line Company within its MACKSBURG DIVISION.

SECOND. - The Buckeye Pipe Line Company shall charge storage at the close of each month on so much of the oil so received which shall have remained undelivered from the preceding month, at the rate of 25 cents per day per thousand barrels, so long as the market price of oil certificate is below $1 per barrel; 30 cents per day when the market price is from $1 to $1.50 per barrel ; and 40 cents per day when the market price is above $1.50 per barrel. No charge, however, to be inade in the rate of storage on account of the price going above or below the price named, unless the market price remains above or below the specified point for thirty consecutive days.

THIRD. - The Buckeye Pipe Line Company shall deduct two per cent, from all oil received from wells into its custody on account of dirt and sediment, and in addition shall deduct one-twentieth of one per cent, for each degree of artificial heat above normal temperature to which said oil shall have been subjected, and oil shall be steamed as heretofore.

We agree in case of any adverse claim of title to furnish THE BUCKEYE PIPE LINE COMPANY satisfactory evidence of title, or failing to do so, to furnish satisfactory indemnity, upon reasonable demand, against <such adverse claim or claims, and that the said THE BUCKEYE PIPE LINE COMPANY may retain the oil until we do so, or until the dispute as to ownership is settled. Witness :

The wells of our county pump more or less salt water which comes in with the oil; the salt water necessitates running the oil into what is called "receiving tanks," where the salt water sq^arates from the oil by gravity, and is drained off. The oil is then run into "stock tanks," of 100 to 250 barrels capacity.

When the oil gets into the stock tanks it is at market; although these stock tanks belong to the lease, and are situated upon it, yet they are controlled by the Standard Oil Company, if the oil is sold to them (and they are the only buyers in our count}' at present). As soon as the tanks are erected the Standard Oil Company connects them to their pipe line and locks the "stop-cock." The tank is then "strapped," that is, measured in circumference at every one-fourth inch in altitude, and these measurements are sent to the Bradford office, where charts are made of the tank, reducing the measurements in inches to barrels. One chart is kept in the office and a duplicate sent to the lease owners.

Then the ganger is notified, and he measures the tank in altitude, turns the oil into the Standard's line and then takes the measurement again and gives a "run ticket" to the owner, which is a receipt for oil that has been taken. This "run ticket" is as follows :

Ticket No Temperature

The same day the ganger telegraphs his runs to the Pittsburg office, where by reference to the division order and chart, credit is given in barrels to the land owner, and also to all who have any interest in the property. The lease owner's interests are referred to as W. I. (working interest) and the land owners R. 1. (royalty interest).

The next day after the oil is run into the pipe line, any one of the owners can sell his interest in the same by calling at the nearest home office. He will receive the price at which oil is selling the day he asks to sell. If he thinks oil will advance he can leave his oil in the line and sell at his pleasure.

The Standard Oil Company attempts to lay all lines that lead from a particular field, so that the oil from the many tanks will flow by the force of gravity to some central location. This place is selected after a careful study of the streams of the region, and here they erect a station, which, consists of thousands of barrels of tankage, and a large boiler house and pumps with power and capacity sufficient to send all oil collected one relay tOr ward the seaboard.

Many stations must be passed before "the oil reaches the large refineries of the East; but the oil that leaves Washington County, Ohio, on Monday can be delivered in Philadelphia on the following Monday. But I would not have you believe that any such time is required for the delivery of an order for oil. As the lines are kept full all the time, a delivery can be begun almost before the click of the instrument that orders it dies away.

The amount of oil sent out of our county varies considerably from month to month, owing to new wells that are liable to come in and increase the production for a few weeks at a time. But the yearly production for the last five years does not fiuctuate so much.

For the year ending October 31, 1901, Washington County, Ohio, sent to market i,- 394,794 barrels of white sand oil, or a daily average of 3,874 barrels.

Oil properties are bought and sold on their daily productions. Usually a lo-day option is taken at an agreed price per barrel. The property is carefully gauged for the 10 days, and should it make 180 barrels in the 10 days, the daily gauge would be 18 barrels, and if the option was at $1,000 per barrel, the price is then fixed at $18,000. Tliis, of course, includes all machinery, tankage and everything pertaining to the operating of the lease.

It is almost impossible to find a good property, where all equipments are first-class, that the owners do not ask $1,000 per barrel for the sam'e. In fact there are many properties in our county that could not be bought for $1,000 per barrel. With this as a basis, the producing properties of Washington County would sell for $1,000 times 3,874, or $3,874,- 000.

To find the amount of money represented by the oil industry in Washington County it is necessary to add to the sum that represents the lease values the amount the Standard Oil Company has invested in pipe lines and Stations, which is as follows :

This investment is larger than the appraised value of all the real estate in the city of Marietta, which in the last appraisement was $4,113,360.

The Standard Oil Company paid for labor, in caring for their interests during the last year, $150,000. This, added to the sale of oil, $1,813,225.00, wiU give the annual income direct from the oil industry, $1,963,225. The total value of all horses, cattle, mules, sheep and hogs that was reported by the assessors of the county for the last year, was $803,343. or less than one-half the annual income from the oil industry.

The Future Prospects

In the list of townships, it will be noticed that all east of the Muskingum River are producers, and the four non-producing townships are well to the west, where they have not been thoroughly tested as yet. But the wild-catter is at work out in the west end as never before, and as he has been very successful, so wfe think his success will continue, and it will not be long until every township in the county will be a producer.

On the east side of the Muskingum, the following sands are productive: first Cow Run; second Cow Run, Salt, Maxon, Keener, Injun and Berea. On the west side the first Caw Run is practically the only one as yet tested. So with these facts before us, we do not fear any permanent decrease in production for years to come, but, in fact, we can safely believe that Washington County, Ohio, will receive an annual income of $2,000,000 from the oil industry for the next 10 years at least.