The Lima-Indiana: The Birthplace of the Modern Oil and Natural Gas Industry

Chuck Knox Knox Geological LLC 1Colonel Drake on the Banks of the Oil Creek 1859

The Birthplace of the Modern Oil and Natural Gas Industry

The Lima-Indiana

By Chuck Knox

Chuck Knox Knox Geological LLC 2

No Economic system has ever rested so firmly on one basic industry as the economic system of today rests on oil…………….Without oil 26,000,000 automobiles would stand motionless, all airplanes would be grounded, railroad transportation would be at a standstill, lights in most of our homes would dieout, skyscrapers would become useless as elevators would be stationary, roads would revert to the dusty ones of yesterday, many medicines would be lost, labor saving devices in the home would be useless; practically all cities would be cut off from the food and all industry would stand idle. The debt of civilization to oil becomes evident as we ponder this list.

The Story of the Ohio Oil Company 1887-1937 William D. Humphrey 1938


Timeline of the Discovery and Development of the Lima-Indiana Trenton Rock Oil Field

1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 18911886

Looking for Gas and Found Oil •Ben Faurot Drills a well looking for Natural Gas on the property of the Lima Paper Mill•No gas but after being shot began to produce oil•This was the first real oil well in nw Ohio and marks the beginning of the Lima Oil field•The Citizens Gas Co. completed a 60 bbl per day well late in the year•Many new companies organized with local and outside capital•Oil men from the eastern fields starting to enter the area.



1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 18911886

Lima and the Wood County Gushers•Faurot gives up his strawboard business and starts the Trenton Rock Oil Co.•Trenton Rock Oil drills 250 wells in 1886 from Lima, through St Marys and into Indiana•Buckeye Pipeline Company formed (owned by the Standard) and begins buying oil at .40 cents per bbl and storing in tanks brought from Pennsylvania.•Wood and Hancock County great gushers were being brought online late in the year, wells of 2,000 bbls per day were not uncommon.•Ohio production for the year was 1,064,025 bbls with most going into storage•No good method of refining to remove the sulphur from the crude•Lima drilling and production costs the lowest of any field in the U.S.


Very Early Geologic Stratigraphic Column



1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 18911887

Knee Deep In Crude Oil•The Bowling Green field of Wood and Hancock counties continues to deliver amazing wells. I.P.s of 5,000, 10,000 and even 50,000 bbls per day are recorded.•Gushers were allowed to run free until storage was built or the well capped, fields would be knee deep in oil and the crude would run into the ditches and rivers.•The Standard reduces its price to 15 cents per bbl. •The Lima producers could not make a profit and 14 independents from that field banded together to form the Ohio Oil Co.•The Ohio Oil Co. took their production off the market until the Standard would pay at least 40 cents per bbl•The Standard starts numerous businesses in the area: the Solar Refinery at Lima, Cygnet Pipeline Co., Connecting Pipeline Co., and another refinery to market a lesser grade of kerosene; the Manhattan Oil Co.


Town Lot Drilling In Findlay, Ohio



1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 18911888

The Secret Project On The Lake•The Standard now has over 10 million barrels in storage •A method has been found by Frausch who is working for Standard to remove the sulphur from the Lima crude. •The Standard buys property on the southern shore of Lake Michigan and starts building the Whiting refinery.•An 8” pipeline is being built to the still secret Whiting refinery. •Oil still selling for 15 cents per barrel.•Standard Oil now acquiring leases in large numbers using an army of “leasers” under the direction of William Fleming of Oil City, Pennsylvania•Ohio Oil Co producing 4,000 bbls of oil per day




1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891

The Standard Takes Over•The Standard starts the process to take control of the Ohio Oil Co.•William Fleming elected to the board of directors•By the end of the year most all directors were replaced and now has a wider field of production with greatly increased capital.•Wood County, Ohio gushers come in with regularity some with I.P.s of over 5,000 bbls per day.•Oil still being shipped by the Buckeye Pipe Line Co. to northwest Indiana•William Burton begins work at the Standard•Standard Oil of Indiana is incorporated



1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891

Ohio Leads the Nation

•Ohio now the nations leader in oil production 15,014,882 bbls produced in 1890•Work continues on the large Standard Oil of Indiana refinery at Whiting•Hancock County, Ohio field reaches peak production levels


Wood County Oil Field. 5,000 acres of the best oil property in the Ohio Trenton




1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891

Indiana: Refining and Producing

•High quality Kerosene is being refined from Lima crude at the Standard Oil of Indiana’s refinery at Whiting•Whiting refinery using the Frausch copper sulfate method of sulphur removal•Some oil is being produced from the Trenton of Indiana, Grant, Huntington, Jay and Wells counties are now active.


Shooting a well with Nitroglycerine in Blackford County

Photo Courtesy of Craig Leonard



1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Indiana Oil

•Indiana now has 151 producing Trenton oil wells.•Grant, Jay, Blackford, Wells and Adams Counties are the fields top producers

17

Oil Operations in Wells County 1890’s

Photo Courtesy of Craig LeonardChuck Knox Knox Geological LLC



1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Indiana Oil Increasing, Ohio Decreasing

•Indiana side of the field grows from 151 wells to 682 wells•225 oil wells are flowing and 457 are “put to the pump”•Indiana oil production in 1893 is 2,335,288 bbls•Ohio oil production is down to 13,646,804 bbls•Ohio Oil Co. now using gasoline engines in the Lima Field, relying less on steam from boilers


Willis Blatchley State Geologist of Indiana Panning for Gold in Brown County



1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Indiana Oil Increasing, Ohio Decreasing

•Ohio produces 13,607,844 bbls of oil for the year 1894•Indiana produces 3,688,666 bbls of oil for the year 1894



1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Indiana Oil Field Increasing in size

•1,957 oil wells have been completed in Indiana•The Indiana oil region is spreading to the west and the south into the giant gas field


Wooden Tanks and Boiler in Blackford County 1890’s




1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Ohio Production Peaks

•Ohio Trenton oil production peaks at 20,575,138 bbls for the year 1896•Indiana now producing 4,588,290 bbls of oil with 3,442 producing oil wells


Boilermakers and Acetylene Welding in Blackford County 1890’s




1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

The Great Battle For Alexandria•Oil discovered in the middle of the giant gas field in a 2nd pay at Alexandria, Madison County, Indiana•Gas needed to be flared to reduce pressure in wellbore to produce oil•Up to 25 million cubic feet of gas per day flared in the Alexandria area.•With out State intervention the gas field would have been destroyed by the oil companies•State of Indiana makes the waste of gas a criminal offense•Ohio Oil Co. forced to shut in oil wells at Alexandria•New developments are made at Peru and Broad Ripple•¾ of all Indiana crude shipped to Whiting Refinery



1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899

Lower Prices = Lower Production

•Lower prices keep production down in Ohio and Indiana



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907

Higher Prices = Higher Production

•Oil prices at record highs 96.5 cents per bbl•Indiana field now 45 miles in length (east-west) and 20 miles at its widest (north-south)•Indiana is up to 4,912675 bbls of oil for the year•Ohio produces 16,884,385 bbls for the year



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907

Indiana Increases Production

•The most active year in Indiana oil history•Most wells are being drilled in known territory, less wildcats•Prices are good at 89 cents per bbl•Indiana production 5,725,474 bbls of oil•Ohio production 16,176,293 bbls of oil



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907

Indiana Surges

•Prices continue to rise to $1.30 per bbl•Indiana nearly doubles production producing 9,177,772 bbls for the year•The deep pays of the Selma/Parker area are discovered



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907

Selma/Parker Leads the Way•Selma/Parker deep pays are the hot prospects of the year with most wells being drilled here•The Standard pays less for the deep pay oil, claims it is a lower quality product•Indiana sets a record with 11,281,030 bbls of oil produced•Selma-Parker area alone producing 2,200,000 bbls of oil•Prices starting to decline to $1.07 per bbl•20,000 oil wells completed in Indiana Trenton Rock Oil Field



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907

The End is Near

•Prices continue to decline with a corresponding decline in production•Very little new productive areas are added•Bear Creek Twp of Jay County most active area of the field•The deep pays of Selma/Parker and Alexandria starting to decline



Area of Known 2nd Pay Oil Development (Trenton)

Area of Known 4th Pay Oil Development (Black River)

Area of 5th Pay Oil Development (Knox)

Area of 1st Pay Oil Development (Trenton)

1906 Map of the Main Trenton Rock Oil Field of Indiana



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1909

The Nails in the Coffin

•Standard Oil of Indiana switches from Lima crude to Mid-Continent crude for their refinery at Whiting•Lima/Indiana crude more expensive than the Mid-Continent to refine•Prices of crude decline•Operators leaving for larger wells in Illinois, Mid-Continent, Texas and California•Over 23,000 oil wells have been drilled and completed in the Indiana Trenton Rock Oil Field



1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1909

The Giant Has Been Buried

•The field has been for the most part abandoned and by 1915 only 363,708 bbls of oil being produced from 3,124 wells average of 1/3 bbl of oil per day.


Stations of the Standard Oil Interests in the U.S. 1888Total Stations 313


Stations of the Standard Oil Interests in the U.S. 1906Total Stations 3573


“Modern methods of producing, transporting and refining crude oil had their origin in the great oil fields of northwestern Ohio. Opened up in 1885 and 1886, these early fields were not only very important for their prolific producing area, but also as a laboratory and proving grounds. Problems arising from the nature of the oil made new refining processes necessary before they could be solved; drilling conditions in these fields, as well as in later ones, required new tools and new drilling techniques; the great volume of oil produced made it essential to develop better storage facilities and new means of transportation on a larger scale than the older eastern methods. It is significant that, for the most part, these and many other allied problems had to be solved in the field without the benefit of any previous experience and by individual initiative and ingenuity. As a result these fields became the training ground for a body of well trained oil men.”

The Story of the Ohio Oil Company 1887-1937 William D. Humphrey 1938




Abandoned Casing Used as a Fence Post


The End of an Era and the Beginning of an Industry

Thanks to All

Business

The Lima-Indiana: The Birthplace of the Modern Oil and Natural Gas Industry