August 16, 1861 – Oldest Producing Well
Drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1861, the McClintock well is pumped a few times a year to supply oil for souvenir bottles sold at the Drake Well Museum.
What would become the world’s oldest continuously producing oil well was completed in 1861 near Rouseville, Pennsylvania. The McClintock No. 1 well, reaching 620 feet deep into the Venango Third Sand, initially produced 50 barrels of oil a day. The well was drilled 14 miles from Titusville, where America’s first commercial oil discovery was made two years earlier.
“This is the oldest well in the world that is still producing oil at its original depth,†notes the Oil Region Alliance, which promotes the well and other historic sites in northwestern Pennsylvania. Donated by Quaker State in 1995, the historic well is pumped monthly to produce up to 10 barrels of oil, according to the Alliance. A nearby marker identifies the McClintock Well No. 1, but “thousands of people pass it each year and don’t even know it’s there.†Souvenir bottles of its oil are available at the Drake Well Museum
The Civil War wouldn’t start for another 2 years when a former railroad conductor named Edwin Drake began a new era by successfully drilling for oil. Towns and Cities soon began to grow around the site; In one of the drilling areas about 70 miles north of Pittsburg lies the McClintock No. 1. At an age of 153 years, producing 1/10th of a barrel of oil per day. It has ticked steadily along through a Civil War, 2 Great World Wars, a Great Depression, and MUCH recently, the latest price shakiness in the Oil Industry.
Originally used to fuel lanterns, the oil industry seemed doomed to become obsolete due to the invention of the light bulb not long after the McClintock was built.
It wasn’t until Ford’s automobile that oil took on its current significance and mass drilling then began. From the Civil War to the Great War, America saw no need to acquire oil abroad, but when the US government was faced with a possible meltdown during the war, it pressured oil companies to buy oil internationally.
From- AOGHS
From- The Little Oil Well That Could
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