COLLECTING AND TRANSPORTING CRUDE: THE PIPE LINE
When a new lease or area proves itself to be commercially productive,
marketing the product becomes the next consideration. In the earliest
stages of recovery and storage of petroleum there were great losses
through lack of facilities, but modern mechanical science has largely
eliminated the appalling waste of early days.
The crude is pumped into small flow tanks, and from there run either to
a pipe line station or to a “tank farm.” The problem of saving the flow
of gushing wells at one time presented serious difficulties; and one
of the most valuable of the early inventions was the clay underground
tank. The petroleum is directed into a sump-hole lined (wherever
possible) with clay, which, because of its close texture, makes an
absolutely leakage proof reservoir. From the sump-hole it is pumped
to the tanks, but this is usually but a temporary shift. When the
gushing process ceases, pumps are installed and direct pipe connection
with the storage tanks is established. The modern pump which lifts
the oil from the oil-bearing strata to the surface is a very powerful
mechanism. One of these will handle a column of oil as high as four
thousand feet, and deliver it into pipes. As has been mentioned in
alluding to the California seacoast fields, the intervening ocean
itself constitutes no obstacle to operations. Not infrequently the
walking beam, used in the drilling, is brought into commission for
pumping purposes. It is rather a cumbersome system but has this
advantage, that it enables the operator to begin production immediately
and realize cash for his output.
In what is known as the field tank, situated adjacent to the derricks
and pumps, the oil operator deposits his daily production, which is
later pumped to the “tank farm” for shipment. The capacity of a tank
is known to a gallon. So many inches or feet of petroleum in a tank
represent so many barrels. The gauger drops a steel tape into the oil
until it touches bottom, and the location of the oil showing on this
steel is the measure of the contents. Then the valves are opened and
a portion of the contents flows away to the pump station or “tank
farm.” A second measurement is taken, and the difference between the
first and second measurement reveals the quantity of oil drawn off. The
gauger then issues to the producer a credit certificate or “run ticket”
representing the quantity of the crude received at that particular time.
There are other complications, however, before the oil reaches the
market. If the wells are gaseous in any considerable degree, the oil
must pass through a gas separator before it enters the tanks. The
gauger must measure and draw off any water present, which, owing to the
proverbial incompatability of oil and water, is not difficult, and in
calculating the amount of the credit slip he sees to it that no water
is inadvertently paid for.
Gas itself is not infrequently an important by-product of an oil lease.
Almost invariably gas is associated with oil, although oil is not
always found where gas is available. From many wells immense quantities
of gas escape while drilling is in progress, and may occasionally
wreck the machinery. Drillers have become expert in handling these
difficulties and in casing off the gas and corking it up for future
use. In many of the oil districts of the South and Middle West, natural
gas from the producing areas has become the fuel of countless people
who will never return to the use of coal, so long as this cheap and
cleanly source of heat and light is available. Some wells yield as much
as 25,000,000 feet of gas per day.
With gas and water eliminated, the crude oil is pumped from the “field
tank” to the “tank farm,” a collection of great containers built near
the oil fields to take care of the output of wells which produce oil
faster than the pipe lines carry it to the refineries. These containers
are built of sheet steel and have a standard capacity of about 55,000
barrels in most cases, although some are constructed to contain 80,000
barrels. They are riveted and must be absolutely proof against leakage.
Incidentally, it may be mentioned that one of the difficulties which
human ingenuity cannot combat is the tendency of lightning to become
attracted by these steel constructions on the open prairies. Great
havoc and waste sometimes result. Another convulsion of nature also
dreaded by the oil man of the Middle West is the cyclone, which at
times is especially disastrous to derricks and pumping plants.
There is but one more stage through which the crude petroleum passes on
its way to the refinery, but this stage is so important and has been
such a vital factor in the organization of the American oil industry,
as well as in those of other countries which have emulated the system,
that it demands extended reference. It is the pipe-line system which
has done more to make the products of petroleum available to all at
reasonable prices than any other innovation in connection with the
industry. It is in reality like the waterworks system which reaches
under the streets of modern towns and cities, but extending beneath the
surface of millions of square miles of territory.
When, as a result of the Pennsylvania discoveries, petroleum became a
commercial commodity, and opened up sources of untold wealth to the
people of this continent, little thought was at first given to the
transportation problem. The earlier wells on Oil Creek were situated
so close to the navigable water that barrels of oil could without
difficulty be loaded upon barges or smaller craft and floated down the
river. In periods of drought when the water was too low to float such
craft, oil boats would be assembled on a mill pond near the wells and
the water dammed back while the loading was in progress. Then the gates
would be opened, and the fleet, carried on the flood and guided by
pilots, would be rushed down Oil Creek to the Allegheny River.
As production increased, and new districts without convenient water
transportation were successfully drilled, it was necessary to devise
new methods. The production of some wells, inaccessible by water,
became a drug on the market and in 1862 crude oil prices at such wells
fell as low as 10 cents a barrel. To meet the difficulty, a system
of teaming was adopted and great caravans of the oil wagons became a
familiar sight in inland oil regions. Such a caravan in the days before
the pipe-lines would sometimes consist of no less than 6,000 wagons
drawn by two horses each, and carrying from five to seven barrels of
oil. Travellers of the early sixties encountering this spectacle were
amazed at the endless stream of vehicles. Work was thus provided for
a large number of men, who, with a team, could earn from $10 to $25
per day conveying petroleum from the wells to the nearest point of
shipment. Roads were in many cases so bad that they tore down fences
and made new thoroughfares to suit their convenience and they were a
lawless set, as later events proved.
The inspiration of constructing a pipe-line which would obviate
teaming, and by which oil could be made to flow direct to the shipping
point or the refinery, is credited to a Jerseyman named Hutchings, who
laid a short pipe line from some wells in which he was interested.
The first test of conveying crude oil in pipes was through a two-inch
iron pipe in process of being laid February 19, 1863 from the Tarr
Farm to the Humboldt Refinery at Plumer, Pa., about six miles
northeast of Oil City, Pa. The distance was two and a half miles.
The teamsters, forseeing that their earnings would be diminished and
perhaps disappear, if the system were generally adopted, destroyed the
line and warned other producers against similar attempts. Hutchings
was obstinate and built a second line. Again the teamsters completely
destroyed his work. Undaunted, he tried again, with no better luck,
and in the end died a broken and penniless man. But his idea did not
die with him. In 1865 one Henry Harley commenced to lay a pipe line
to the terminus of the Oil Creek railroad but the teamsters not only
cut his pipes but burned his collection tanks. The State authorities,
however, gave him armed protection and his line was completed. It was
of two-inch diameter, with a rated daily capacity of 800 barrels.
[Illustration: A big yield well in Mexico flowing into a temporary
storage pond]
[Illustration: Laying a pipe line through a Louisiana forest]
J. D. Henry, one of the most eminent historians of petroleum, asserts
that the first commercially successful pipe line was constructed
in the summer of 1865 by Samuel Van Syckel of Titusville, from the
mushroom city of Pithole, Pa., to the nearest railway station, Miller
Farm, a distance of four miles. Van Syckel had the backing of New York
capital, and the basis of his success, after similar projects had been
abandoned as visionary, was due to better mechanical arrangements. Van
Syckel’s line does not appear to have suffered from the lawlessness
of teamsters. On the completion of Harley’s second line in the same
neighbourhood, both proved so commercially successful that capitalists
bought and amalgamated the two. Teamsters continued to give trouble and
effect damage but protective measures were successful in securing the
performance of the enterprise.
From that time onward the mileage of pipe-lines has steadily
multiplied, and by means of them the crude petroleum collected at a
“tank farm” on the prairies is conveyed to refineries many hundreds of
miles away. The first pipe-line of considerable length was laid in
1880 from Butler County, Penn. to Cleveland, Ohio, a distance of over
100 miles. Almost immediately after trunk lines from Bradford, Pa. to
the Atlantic seaboard were commenced. By 1893 there were 3,000 miles of
pipe lines in the Eastern states with storage facilities for 35,000,000
barrels of oil.
British and French historians of petroleum, viewing the development
of the industry from the standpoint of impartial observers, regard
the year 1883 as an epochal one in its history, because it marked the
initiation of a comprehensive policy with regard to pipe-lines, under
the inspiration of John D. Rockefeller. Mr. Rockefeller, originally a
produce merchant, became interested in the oil business as early as
1862 by the purchase of an interest in a small refinery at Cleveland,
and by 1865, had become so convinced of the possibilities of the
petroleum industry that he devoted himself exclusively to the refining
and shipping business. In 1870 this business became incorporated as the
Standard Oil Company.
Of the events of 1883 Alfred Lidgett, a noted British oil expert and
editor of the _Petroleum Times_ (London, England), says in his book
“Petroleum,” published in 1919: “Then a few master minds came to the
front, and loyally supported by John D. Rockefeller, they undertook
the herculean task of practically girdling the United States with a
system of oil pipe-lines that has no parallel anywhere. They eliminated
the jaded horses, oil boats, wooden tankage and slow freights,
tedious methods, and questionable practice of handling petroleum, and
substituted therefor the steam pump, the iron conduit, the steel tank
storage, and systematic and business-like methods which soon commanded
the confidence and respect of all oil-producers. They extended
their pipe-lines to almost every producing well and established a
transportation system which serves the industry to-day as no other
on earth is served. The advantages of the modern pipe-line to the
oil-producer are obvious.”
The pipe-line connection to the producer’s well and tanks ensures
prompt clearance of the crude and a steady cash market for his output,
under the system defined in the last chapter. The elimination of waste
and the reduction of cost in connection with transportation, of course,
resulted in great material benefits to the consumer of petroleum
products. It is indeed quite clear that without this Napoleonic
organization of the pipe-line service the boon of petroleum could not
have been adequately utilized by humanity at large.
In conveying oil through the pipe lines both gravity and pumping are
used. The pumping station at the “tank farm” forces the crude into
pipes through which it commences its long journey to the refinery. This
pumping equipment is in itself a wonderful mechanism and drives the oil
over heights where gravity cannot assist. The pipe at the field lines
where the journey starts varies in diameter from 2 to 8 inches and the
joints are screw threaded. The main trunk lines are from 6 to 12 inches
in diameter and pumping stations to continue the driving process are
located at necessary intervals along the route. In some fields the oil
is heavier than in others and then the stations have to be located
nearer to each other, while in the case of certain very heavy crudes,
heat is applied to promote the flow before it enters the pipe-line.
By this system the amount of oil that flows under the soil of the
United States to distant points exceeds half a million barrels daily.
Concealed and unobtrusive, these lines do their work so well that
millions of people whom they serve are unaware of their existence.
Everyone knows of the freight train that links up the small town
factory with the central distributing point, and of the grain car which
carries the farmer’s wheat to the seaboard; but little attention is
paid to this great but inconspicuous transportation adjunct of American
industry, the petroleum pipe-line.
As the system has grown, handling in tank cars of anything but refined
product has become more and more nearly obsolete, for economic reasons.
Once installed, the pipe-line system is cheap and easily maintained.
It would, indeed, be quite impossible to conduct the American oil
industry of to-day by the use of railroads, even though they were
greatly multiplied. The crude oil which flows daily, east of the Rocky
Mountains, through pipe-lines would fill over 2,500 tank cars. Since,
on the average, a barrel of crude travels 1,000 miles before it reaches
its destination, it would require approximately 75,000 tank cars to
do the daily work of transportation effected by the pipe-lines, not
to mention approximately 900 engines which it is estimated would be
required to move them. Leaving out all the possibilities of congestion
in stormy weather, it will be seen that such a task is one that
railroads could not hope to carry out. In its present dimensions
the oil industry, therefore, owes as much to the pipe-line as to the
actual existence of oil deposits themselves. The work they perform
is infinitely more even and uninterrupted than that of any system of
railroad or water transportation. The pipe-lines run to full capacity,
winter and summer, day and night, the year round, making possible the
existence of great central refining plants where the crude can be
treated in bulk at the lowest possible cost, and where distribution can
be effected at the lightest impost on the ultimate consumer.