1859
Oil Well
Edwin Drake (1819–1880)
What would prompt someone to think that there were vast pools of oil underground? First, it was common knowledge that water sources existed underground, as people had been digging wells for centuries. Second, in some places, crude oil seeps to the surface. In 1859, near Titusville, PA, the first commercial attempt was made to drill for underground oil near an oil seep. Hired by the Seneca Oil Company, Edwin Drake used a rotating drill bit to bore down to bedrock. The hole was lined with cast-iron pipe to keep water from collapsing it. The drill went through bedrock and hit oil at 69 feet (22 meters) below ground. A pump brought the oil to the surface.
Today the process is similar, but with more environmental safeguards, regulations and engineering oversight. A drill bit on the end of a pipe, called the drill string, is rotated by a turntable on the drilling rig. A fluid known as drilling mud pumps down through the pipe to cool the drilling bit and force the debris out of the hole. When the drill hits a predetermined depth, or bedrock, steel casing is inserted into the hole. Then cement is pumped down the casing under high pressure so it exits the bottom of the casing and flows back up the hole on the outside of the casing toward the surface. Once set, this cement will lock the casing in place and protect any groundwater from the oil.
Then a smaller bit goes down inside this surface casing to reach the oil. More steel casing and then cement goes down the hole. At that point, the drilling equipment is removed, a wellhead is installed, and pumping can begin to extract the oil.
Today much of the economy depends on oil. Humans pump and refine about 85 million barrels a day, almost all of it sourced from oil wells, although in many cases shipped over long distances or conveyed via pipeline, as in the case of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.
SEE ALSO Plastic (1856), Wamsutta Oil Refinery (1861), Trans-Alaska Pipeline (1977), Container Shipping (1984).
Oil rig in Titusville, Pennsylvania, circa 1900.