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Excerpts from "Oil History," by Samuel T. Pees The earliest idea of a pipeline to carry crude oil was put forth in Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1860 by 17-year-old Samuel Duncan Karns. Attention turned from this idea when the Civil War broke out in 1861, and the line was never laid. In 1861, too much oil was being lost in flatboat wrecks or wagon accidents, the means of transportation then. Herman Janes proposed a 4-inch wooden pipeline ditched along the creek's bank and expected the oil to flow by gravity. A huge outcry from those who feared for their livelihood in the oil trade stopped the first bill seeking a general pipeline charter from the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1861. This bill marked the first attempt to officially organize a pipeline company in PA. After the 1st bill seeking a pipeline charter failed, The Oil Creek Transportation Company was successfully incorporated in 1862 by the Pennsylvania Legislature, winning the right to lay pipe along Oil Creek and to "any point on the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad." Unfortunately, gaining the right from the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1862 to lay pipe didn't ensure success. The technology in the early 1860's wasn't up to the task - the pipes leaked and sabotage by the teamsters made the ventures very risky. Wood pipes were used early in the natural gas industry. In 1821, gas found in Fredonia, NY, was wood-conveyed, as were early gas occurrences in the Appalachian basin. Gas from the organic shale cropping along Lake Erie was piped through pine logs in 1823. Cast iron and wrought iron pipes of various diameters were in use around the producing wells from the start of the industry. The pipes variously served as drive pipe, conductor, casing, tubing and for conveyance of oil in and around the lease. Oil transport by flatboat and wagon was getting more difficult and inefficient. Accidents were common, and the cartage charge to depots and ports was high even before the barrels began the last leg of the trip. Finding oil in sites without roads, viable water courses, or terrain amenable to wagons forced the issue in the 1860's. Of all the pre-1864 attempts at pipelines, only 3 succeeded: an 1861 line from a depot to a refinery in Erie, PA; a 1000-foot siphon line from a well to a nearby refinery; and a 2-inch line from Plumer to the Allegheny River. In pre-pipeline days, teams and wagons moved oil barrels if a well wasn't next to a river bank or navigable creek. Haulage prices were steep - up to over $4 per barrel for long hauls and $1+/barrel for shorter ones. The volatile price of oil compounded the problem. In the pre-pipeline price swings of the early 1860's crude oil fell to less than 10 cents a barrel with an empty new barrel costing up to $3.25; this imbalance brought production to a near standstill. The price then rose in 1864 to a peak of over $12 per barrel. In 1865 the pipeline finally found success in the PA oil region. The 1st major line was that of Samuel Van Syckel, an oil buyer and shipper in the Oil Creek area. Like other pipeliners, he was motivated by the outrageous prices charged for barrel haulage. The high rate for oil haulage was just one influence on pipeline pioneer Samuel Van Syckel. The remote Pithole field - some 5 miles from the closest station with no roads and difficult terrain - was found in 1865. Van Syckel knew a pipeline was the answer. In 1865, Samuel Van Syckel laid about 5 miles of 2-inch wrought iron pipe in 15-ft joints from Miller Farm Station on the west side of Oil Creek in a SE direction to Pithole. Tested to a pressure of 900 barrels to the sq. inch, the lap-welded joints cost $50 each. Part of the Van Syckel pipeline was buried to 2 feet, and the rest was laid on top of the ground. He installed 4 Reed and Cogswell steam pumps in all, bringing the line's 24-hour delivery to 2500 barrels. Mechanical problems were minor and easily fixed. Based on distance, topographical relief, pumps, and rate of flow, the 1865 Van Syckel pipeline was the 1st in the oil regions to succeed. A revolutionary means of oil transport, it ended the local haulage monopoly and resulted in many more lines being laid. With his pipeline paying off ($1 per barrel delivered), Samuel Van Syckel laid another line parallel to the first except that the terminal was on the opposite bank of Oil Creek. The second line became operational on December 8, 1865. As with railroads, the Van Syckel pipeline gave rise to a telegraph line along the same right-of-way. Since the pipelines carried crude from multiple producers and buyers, the telegraph relayed accounting information about the oil shipments and any emergencies. Although Samuel Van Syckel may not have realized it, his two 1865 pipelines helped end the use of wooden oil barrels. They eventually disappeared from sight in the oil region, made extinct by the pipelines, railway tank cars of 1865, and bulk boats. In the 1860's the 42-gallon barrel became a unit of measurement, and the amount of oil transported is still expressed in terms of barrels. Although we may still envision hoop-bound containers, actual barrels are no longer used. By late 1865, a 6-inch gravity pipeline (no pumps) was completed by the Pennsylvania Tubing and Transportation Company along Pithole Creek. It delivered 7000 barrels to its terminus daily, expedited by a gradient of 52 ft. per mile. The Pithole oil boom spawned several pipelines. One of these was a 2-inch line from Pithole to Henry's Bend on the Allegheny River. It began delivering oil on October 24, 1865. The pipeline was 4 miles long with a through-put of 2000 barrels per day. The events of the year 1865 launched a multitude of pipelines in the Pennsylvania oil region and neighboring oil-producing states. As soon as oilfields were found, pipelines were planned. The development of railroad tank cars also took place in 1865 and underwent much modification in a short time. Railroads were undergoing enormous expansion. The impetus for this growth was the oil industry - particularly the pipelines. The first pipelines went from oilfields to railroad terminal stations, but soon pipeliners were looking to the eastern seaboard instead. This explosion of interest in crude oil and refined product transport coincided with the pipeline advances of the early to mid 1860's. William Abbott and Henry Harley took oil to market or rather, to other facilities that took it the rest of the way. Early oil transportation historians see Abbott and Harley as prime movers in the conveyance of oil from the oilfields to the railroad terminals by pipelines. Henry Harley's determination and vigor saw him through the ordeal of laying a pipeline from Benninghoff Run to Shaffer on Oil Creek in 1865-66. In the face of mob rule and teamsters bent on destroying his line, he persevered, ignoring death threats and losses. Along with setting fires, saboteurs pulled the joints apart, virtually destroying Henry Harley's pipelines. Harley moved ahead, relaying the lines and finishing by March 1866. Each 2-inch pipeline could deliver up to 2000 barrels/day to the storage tanks. With pipelines going strong in 1865-66, oil buyer A.W. Smiley realized that hauling oil from each well to the receiving stations - then handled by teams - was unnecessary if a network of 2-inch lines were laid from the wells' stock tanks to the dump stations. This was also cheaper, safer and faster. As the Union battled the South, a pipeline war also raged in 1863. There were attacks on persons and property, injuries, death, fires, great destruction, damage, night raids, propaganda, dirty politics, extortion, and money loss. It was a war of wages and rates. As teamsters fought pipelines, fatal fires were set in Pithole, Titusville, Benninghoff Run, and Franklin. In these quickly built boom towns, oilfield structures were next to homes, so both burned. Nervous residents formed a vigilance committee and erected a gallows. Many pipelines were laid in the last half of the 1860's. They filled the lower 16+ miles of Oil Creek Valley. But looking farther away than the first oil belt (PA), early pipes of the 1860's were being laid in West Virginia - and contemplated in other producing states. In 1865, William H. Abbott acquired a part interest in the Van Syckel pipeline. In 1866, Abbott and Henry Harley combined Harley's Benninghoff Run-Shaffer pipeline and Abbott's share of the Van Syckel. In 1867 Abbott and Harley bought the Western Transportation Company, which had a failed pipeline in Oil Creek Valley. The jewel of the transaction was Western's 1864 charter from the PA Legislature, which gave them the right to carry oil to railroad yards. In 1867, having put together all of their lines, W.H. Abbott and Henry Harley formed a new company, the Allegheny Transportation Company, and put president of the Erie Railroad Jay Gould on the board. This is considered the first great pipeline company. The Allegheny Transportation Co. grew and, as the Pennsylvania Transportation Co., had 500 miles of pipelines to all the producing fields in Northwest PA by 1871. Capitalized at 2 million dollars, it had strong ties with the railroads, particularly the Erie and the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. The growth and competition of pipeline companies surged in the 1870's. Union Pipeline Co., Empire Pipeline, Mutual and the United Pipelines were a few of the big names. The first Standard Oil pipeline began taking hold in the oil region as the American Transfer Company. Page Last Updated on : 4/20/2006 |
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Did You Know? With pipelines going strong in 1865-66, oil buyer A.W. Smiley realized that hauling oil from each well to the receiving stations - then handled by teams - was unnecessary if a network of 2-inch lines were laid from the wells' stock tanks to the dump stations. This was also cheaper, safer and faster. More... |
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