CHAPTER VIII

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.