The most important oil well ever drilled was in the middle of quiet farm country in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859. For this was one of the first successful oil wells that was drilled for the sole purpose of finding oil. Known as the Drake Well, after "Colonel" Edwin Drake, the man responsible for the well, it began an international search for petroleum, and in many ways eventually changed the way we live.

Drake did not possess the good business acumen that his "followers" did. He failed to patent his drilling invention, so he never collected royalties from future wells using it. Then he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. In 1872, the State of Pennsylvania granted him an annuity of $1,500. Edwin Drake died in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 1880.

Nestled quietly in the rolling hills of Venango County in Northwest Pennsylvania is Pithole, a ghost town located just of Rt. 227 between the small towns of Pleasantville and Plumer. During the oil boom of the late 1860's Pithole City was a rather large boom town. As a matter of fact America’s largest boom town. Oil was first discovered at Pithole in January of 1865, just six years after Colonel Edwin Drake discovered oil near Titusville, which is about 15 miles northwest. By September of the same year, Pithole had grown from a lowly farming area to a boom town of 15,000 people. This entire area is considered the birthplace of the oil industry. Oil wells popped up on every piece of land for miles, while some did not produce much oil, many did. As a matter of fact, there were several small towns that sprang from this oil boom, although most of them are still here. By January of 1866, Pithole was vanishing. Fires, and over drilling for oil caused money to run out and oil to dry up. People started moving on to bigger and better things.

15-01-02 The worlds largest oil reserve is not lying under Saudi Arabian deserts or under the sea, it is clinging to grains of sand in the Canadian boreal forest of Northern Alberta. Between 1.7 tn and 2.5 tn barrels of crude oil, 300 bn of which are expected to be recoverable, are spread like topsoil across thousands of sq km of Alberta forest and tundra.
And thanks to new technology being developed by many large oil groups, it may offer a seemingly limitless supply of North American petroleum products with the scoop of a steam shovel. "Alberta is in a very enviable position to supply its own needs and those of its trading partners over the next 50-100 years," Murray Smith, Albertas Minister of Energy said ahead of his speech to a conference on North American energy in Washington.

Originally posted by AngelHeart
The problem with oil shale is the process of drilling and heating it to produce an oil-like substance. Shale is not the same thing as pure grade petroleum. As of now, the harvesting of shale would not be cost effective.


Oil Shale


[edit on 19-7-2009 by AngelHeart]