Petroleum industry in Ohio facts for kids
The petroleum industry in Ohio started a long time ago, back in 1859. Ohio has produced a lot of oil and natural gas since 1860 – over 1 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas! Today, new ways of finding oil and gas, especially in eastern Ohio, are helping the state produce even more.
In late 1859, a blacksmith named William Jeffrey drilled the first well in Ohio specifically to find oil. This happened in Mecca Township, near Warren. The next year, more oil searching began in Macksburg.
_(cropped).jpg)
The Ohio Oil Rush
In 1836, people found natural gas while drilling a water well in Findlay. But it wasn't until 1884 that a gas well was drilled deep into the Trenton Limestone. This happened after Dr. Charles Oesterlen started the Findlay Natural Gas Company. This well, called the Pioneer Well, found gas about 1,000 feet deep.
Then, in 1886, the Karg well produced a huge amount of gas. Soon, gas was found in Bowling Green, and oil was found in Lima in 1885.
Oil production grew quickly, especially after large oil and gas areas were found in Wood County in northwest Ohio during the 1880s. From Toledo to Lima and into Indiana, a crack in the Earth called the Bowling Green Fault helped trap oil and gas in the rock.
In 1891, people started drilling for oil in water for the first time in the world! This happened in Grand Lake. More than 100 wells were drilled there in less than 10 years.
Between 1895 and 1903, Ohio was the top oil producer in the United States. After that, Texas and Oklahoma produced more. The Trenton limestone area produced over 380 million barrels of oil and 2 trillion cubic feet of gas. It produced the most oil in 1896, with 23.9 million barrels. Large amounts of oil were produced until the 1930s. However, early drilling methods were not very good, so the oil fields quickly lost their pressure.
During this time, many towns in Ohio grew very fast, then slowed down just as quickly. Natural gas was not seen as useful until the 1880s. Before that, people thought it was just a "nuisance."
Findlay became known as "the gas capital of Ohio" in late 1885. For example, in Findlay, the first commercial natural gas well started producing in 1884. In 1886, the Karg Well produced so much gas that Findlay was called the "City of Light." Free fuel and light attracted many businesses, including glass factories. By 1888, Findlay was one of the biggest glass-making centers. People thought the gas would never run out. But by 1890, the amount of gas began to drop.
In 1883, Ohio was the fifth-largest oil-producing state. It was behind Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and California. Ohio produced 47,000 barrels of oil that year, which was less than one percent of the country's oil. But Ohio's production quickly increased. In 1895, Ohio became America's top oil-producing state. Ohio's oil production reached its highest point in 1896, with 24 million barrels. Ohio remained the leading oil state until 1902, when Oklahoma took that title.
Oil and Gas Production in the 1900s
In northwest Ohio, finding oil was a new thing. People didn't know much about the industry, which led to poor management. This caused a lot of waste during production. Eventually, it led to the end of the "oil boom" in that area.
Even though production dropped a lot as the oil fields lost pressure, oil and gas continued to be produced in Ohio. More than 220,000 wells have been drilled in 67 of Ohio's 88 counties. About 60,000 of these wells were still working in 2000. These wells have produced over 1 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Much of the gas production has come from sandstone layers in eastern Ohio.
New Ways to Find Oil and Gas
In 1814, oil was first sold as a "cure-all" medicine. It was dug out of salt wells in southeast Ohio.
Since 2005, the oil and gas industry has found new ways to get oil and gas from hard-to-reach rocks. These rocks have low "permeability," meaning liquids and gases don't flow through them easily. These new methods include horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (also called fracking).
These new technologies have greatly increased drilling for natural gas from the Marcellus Formation in eastern Ohio. This area stretches from Washington County in the south, to Guernsey County in the west, and north to Lake and Ashtabula Counties.
Since 2009, people have also become interested in finding oil and "wet gas" (gas with some liquid parts) from the Utica Shale. This area goes from Erie County south to Pickaway County and then southeast to Meigs County on the Ohio River.
There is still a lot of oil and gas that can be found in the Trenton and other rock layers in northwest Ohio. New technologies, like putting pressure back into the oil fields, might help find even more oil and gas in the future.
