| THE HISTORY OF GEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING |    |
| PART TWO - LEADERS IN PETROLEUM | |
The rise of the state of Ohio to the position of an important oill producing state may be said to have been a complete geologic surprise. The acceleration of its production from a mere 90,000 barrels in the year 1884 to first position in the nation with 20,000,000 barrels in 1895, was brought about principally by the efficiency with which the Standard Oil Trust gave its best efforts toward development of the region.
In the spring of 1860, two small wells were pumping oil in the Mecca area of Trumbull County with nearly fifty other wells in various stages of drilling. Trumbull County, Ohio, is on the Pennsylvania state line and the Mecca field was found, eventually, to extend across the state boundary. Production from this two-state area was always small and unimportant.
Although surface seeps and other indications of oil and gas in northwestern Ohio were known from an early date, it simply was not "right" for oil production, or so the mining men, the geologists and the experienced oil people believed. The flat terrain covered with glacial drift with its underlying limestone and shale formations just did not appeal to the petroleum fraternity, long accustomed to the rugged hills and underlying sandstones of the Appalachians. Drilling for gas in northwestern Ohio began in 1880 and found a vast gas reservoir in the Trenton limestone near Findlay, Ohio, in 1884. Even then the region’s oil possibilities were ignored. Early in 1885 a weIl drilled for gas near Lima, Ohio, found no free flow of gas and decided to try shooting the weIl with "rack-rock," a mixture of potassium chlorate and di-nitrobenzole. Instead of inducing the gas to come forth, it started to flow oil at the rate of 18 barrels per day.
The crude oil from northwestern Ohio was found to be highly saturated with hydrogen sulphide and other sulphur compounds. At that time there was no refining process that was capable of making satisfactory kerosene from such petroleum. For the first few years Ohio crude was used primarily for fuel oil and as long as it stayed cheap a considerable number of manufacturing firms in Chicago and elsewhere used it instead of coal. The average oil weIl depth in Ohio was considerably less than the average depth in Pennsylvania. For this and other reasons the drilling costs were much less in Ohio. Oil could be sold at a profit for a price substantially under the Pennsylvania market price.
From Lima in Allen County and Findlay in Hancock County (adjoining counties), the oil belt stretched southwest into Putnam, Van Wert, Mercer and Auglaise counties. It also spread northeast into Wyandot, Seneca, Wood, Sandusky, Ottawa and Lucas counties. Even though the oil territory was extending every whichway, it still went by the name of Lima crude oil. The Standard Oil Trust made its first move into Ohio in 1886 by organizing the Buckeye Pipeline Company. Buckeye began to build tank farms and buy Lima crude oil with which to fill these tank farms. The price of Lima crude started at forty cents a barrel in 1886 but by mid-1887, with lots of oil being produced and few buyers, the price had receded to fifteen cents a barrel and stayed at fifteen cents a barrel for two and a half years.
In October, 1888, John D. RockefeIler was elated to receive word, that after almost two years of experimentation, his chemists at Lima and his chemists at Cleveland, by exchanging ideas and comparing notes, had at long last succeeded in producing a merchantable illuminating oil from Lima Crude. The sulphur problem had been solved. The desulphurization process was a closely guarded trade secret for years. Even after it became apparent that Standard xxxx have such an invention, its existence continued to be denied. Buckeye stored better than three million barrels of the Lima crude in the year 1888, alone.
Standard up to this time had been content to buy oil; it never seemed interested in setting up a production department. In 1888 the old policy was abandoned and producing properties began to be acquired in a steady volume in northwestern Ohio. With the price of crude oil pegged at fifteen cents a barrel, the price of producing properties was not excessive. In 1889, Standard's Lima Refinery was enlarged and pipeline connections were made with Cleveland and the East. Also under construction was a pipeline headed in the direction of Chicago.
Standard Oil originally expected to build a refinery in South Chicago but land values were thought to be too high. For this reason the site of the refinery was shifted to Whiting, Indiana, some seventeen miles south. In April, 1889, a new subsidiary, Standard of Indiana, was incorporated to take care of the Chicago territory. The pipeline to Whiting, Indiana, was finished in June, 1890, and the Whiting Refinery put in operation processing Lima crude in September, 1890.
By 1891 Standard owned well over half of all the producing oil properties in the gigantic Ohio-Indiana oilfields producing Lima crude oil. On March 6, 1890, Standard Oil posted twenty cents for Lima crude, the first break-through of the fifteen cent price in thirty months. By 1892 the price had risen to thirty-seven cents, by 1893 to forty-seven cents. From 1895 to 1900 the average posted price for Lima crude was close to seventy cents per barrel. With the arrival of higher prices, the use of Lima crude for fuel purposes began to recede. From 1891 on, the sale to manufacturing firms of crude oil as a substitute for coal was negligible.
In 1890, the Cleveland Refinery began the use of Lima petroleum. In 1893, Lima crude was flowing into Standard's Olean, New York, Refinery. In 1895 Ohio oil had reached the Standard refineries in Philadelphia and in Bayonne, New Jersey.
In 1889 the state of Ohio took over first place in the production of petroleum from the state of Pennsylvania and continued, its first rank for eight years yielding the lead to California in 1903. Pennsylvania was supreme from 1859 through 1894, reaching its peak production in 1891 with over 31.000,000 barrels. Ohio reached its highest production In 1896 with just under 24,000,000 barrels. Ohio averaged better than twenty million barrels per year from 1895 through 1904 and then faded rapidly. We must take a seccond look, for Ohio in the 1960s is making a remarkable comeback, bent on the re-establishment of its position as a formidable oil state. Geophysical surveys and increased geological interest have turned up new oil and gas structures all over the state of Ohio.
Oil in commercial quantities was produced from wells drilled in Java in 1896. ln Venezuela in 1899 and in Trinidad in 1902. Michael Cudahy brought the first commercial production to the Oklahom territory on April 15, 1897. The producing horizon was what we now call the Bartlesville sand. When this well did not seem to be inclined to produce, it was shot with nitroglycerine and made to flow.
On September 21, 1901, Scott Heywood hit a gusher at the depth of 1,800 feet on the Jules Clements farm six miles northwest of the town of Jennings, Louisiana to start the Jennings oilfield and bring first production to the state. On January 10, 1901, the most celebrated well in the annals of the state of Texas blew in with a roar on a little rise of land known originally as "Round Mound" and later as "Big HilI." The Spindletop oilfield was named after a subdivision called "Spindletop Heights" on the northeast flank of the salt dome. The discovery weIl was put down by Anthony F. Lucas. The dome was four miles south of Beaumont, Texas.
In 1902 the Royal Dutch Shell was formed. This petroleum colossus of worldwide proportions started with The Netherlands holding a 60% interest and England a 40% interest. The same percentages hold down to the present.
From 1865 through the year 1886, New York state had held second place, next to Pennsylvania in oil production. From 1887 through 1894, Ohio was second. When Ohio took the lead in 1895, Pennsylvania took second place and held it until replaced in this runner-up position by West Virginia in 1900. West Virginia was third from 1891 through 1898, second in 1899, 1900 and 1901; then dropped to fourth in 1902. Texas was second in 1902, third in 1903, second in 1904 and 1905, and then dropped to fourth in 1906. Ohio was second in 1903, changed to third in 1904, 1905 and 1906; then dropped to fifth in 1907.