Link here to Rigzone.com story.
From the web:
In some areas, small quantities of oil naturally seep out of the ground. Human beings have long recognized the utility of the seeped oil and have employed it for a variety of purposes. For instance, Native Americans used tar pitch to waterproof their canoes and early Spanish settlers used it to seal their boots. Pioneers in Pennsylvania skimmed seeped kerosene from riverbeds to use as lamp fuel and machinery lubrication.This is practically verbatim from a section in Daniel Yergin's 1990 Pulitzer Prize winning The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Power, and Money.
In response to the rising demand for kerosene in the 1800s, American investors hired Edwin Drake to drill at the source of a natural kerosene seep in 1859. The resulting oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania was 69.5 feet deep and produced 15-20 barrels of oil per day. Originally, kerosene was the end-product and gasoline, the by-product, was discarded. However, as the automotive industry developed to run on gasoline-powered internal combustion engines, a permanent market for gasoline developed and kerosene became a minor product.
It appears this part of Pennsylvania has a history of poor ground water quality even before gas drilling ever occurred. Now with the gas development the poor quality of the water is pointing the finger of blame at gas drilling using fracturing. With a history of oil seeps and methane in the water it is pretty hard to prove drilling and fracturing are the culprits.
ReplyDeleteLooks like this area should of gone to rural water systems a long time ago. Rural water systems have been in existence and are a standard in most of the country.
Funny how this isn't brought up when we hear all the concern about private well problems.
I honestly don't think folks know that much about the history of the oil industry. Just reading the first few pages of Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer winning "The Prize" tells the reader exactly what you just wrote: oil has always been seeping to the service in northwestern Pennsylvania, elsewhere.
DeleteThe colonists were scooping oil out of surface water, and using rags in surface to collect oil.