1 4 GS . G)tof ixxriGZU CIR i4V c. 3 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ STATE OF ILLINOIS DWIGHT H. GREEN, Governor DEPARTMENT OF REGISTRATION AND EDUCATION FRANK G. THOMPSON, Director DIVISION OF THE STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY M. M. LEIGHTON, Chief URBANA CIRCULAR No. 148 AIRPLANE VIEWS OF ILLINOIS OIL INSTALLATIONS By FREDERICK SQUIRES Reprinted from Producers Monthly, September, (Original title, "Illinois Oil from the Air") PRINTED BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS URBANA, ILLINOIS 1948 ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGIC AL SURVEY 3 3051 00004 6197 Airplane Views of Illinois Oil Installations By Frederick Squires * This article is illustrated by aerial photographs taken on a flight around the Illinois oil basin with the object of drawing particular attention to fluid in- jection operations. The round trip is illustrated by the drawing (Fig. 1). The plants photographed were five of those where oil is being recovered through the use of water-flooding or gas injection. Air views were taken of the Dove pressure -maintenance and gasoline ex- traction plant at the Louden field (Fig. 2), the water plant for the flooding oper- ation on the Patoka field (Fig. 3), the gasoline plant and pressure-maintenance equipment at the Salem field (Fig. 4), and the pressure-maintenance equipment at the New Harmony field (Fig. 5). The last picture is the water plant for flood- ing the Siggins field (Fig. 6). The plane flew above the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad tracks as far as Mattoon, where some 300 pumping jacks outline the narrow field that stretches north and south of the town. From that point it veered toward the southwest and headed for Beecher City at the north end of the Louden field. When the Louden oil field was being- drilled in 1937, the site could have been spotted from the air by the drilling der- ricks that stretched for a distance of several miles. Now the derricks are gone, replaced by pumping jacks powered by electricity. The aerial view (Fig. 2> shows the equipment used in the maintenance of pressure. Gas is gathered from the wells, the gasoline and other liquid products are separated from it by absorp- tion under pressure, and the residue gas is returned to the field where it is in- jected into the sands through input wells. The Louden field is now the biggest producer of oil in Illinois. It has been more skillfully engineered than the older fields, so that a higher percentage of the total amount of oil will finally be re- covered. This field uses two kinds of injection: gas injection on the shallower Chester sands, and water-flooding on the deeper Devonian limestone. A little south of the Louden field the plane crossed the St. James oilfield, then Figure 1 — Map of Flight changed direction southwestward toward Patoka. Patoka is a small oil field, but im- portant as an Illinois pioneer: the oil- bearing structure was located by seis- mograph; the wells were drilled with rotary rigs, the first use of this method in Illinois; it was the first oil field to use wide spacing between water wells for flooding; and it was the first one to use salt water as the flooding liquid. The oil recoveries from the Patoka field hold the present record for the water-flooding process in Illinois. From Patoka the plane turned south- east toward Salem, the most spectacular oil field seen on the flight. A regiment of derricks rises above what was once the third largest producing field in the United States. In this field gas is being- injected into the upper sands. The clear flat blue color of Lake Cen- tralia was sharply visible from the plane. Clustered around churches and right- of-ways are many closely spaced wells that were drilled in the absence of a state law to check a wasteful practice. Several large gasoline plants punctuate the scene, and little villages for oilfield workers are outlined in geometric pat- terns. Farther south the plane passed over the Dix field, where the original pres- sure on the Bethel sand is being restored in part by water injection at the contact of oil and water in the outer edge of the producing sand. Next came the Wood- lawn field, where gas repressuring is being applied, and to the south the Benton field, the ownership of which has been consolidated in preparation for what promises to be a highly successful water-flooding operation. Wheeling eastward, the plane passed over the Rural Hill and Dale Hoodville fields, both of which are likely possibil- ities for water-flooding. At the Maunie South field near Wabash River the plane turned north. The Maunie South oil comes from the Tar Springs sand. In this oil field, engineers have pioneered a new type of flood in which only widely spaced old wells are used. Its spectacular success has taught a valuable lesson in water-flooding technique. From Maunie the plane flew north- ward along the "Banks of the Wabash" to the New Harmony oil field. The In- diana side of the river was once the site of the Owens Cooperative settlement. Owens himself was a geologist of note, and it is an interesting fact that he lived almost over a great oil field. At the south end of the New Harmony field a water-flood operation on the Wal- tersburg sand is working upward from the low part of the oil-bearing structure. The whole field is under pressure main- tenance with gas through a cooperative agreement between interested producers, a profitable "New Harmony." The photo- graph (Fig. 5) shows a spectacular view of the gasoline and pressure-mainte- nance plant at the edge of the plateau above the Wabash Valley plain. From the north end of the New Har- mony field the Calvin North oil field was visible to the west. This area is being water-flooded. The plane flew on northward to the Browns field, then turned northeast toward Friends ville, Allendale, and St. Francisville. At St. Francisville the plane was flying over the field where natural encroachment of edge-water in the Tracy sand multiplied oil production. The deduction that arti- ficial floods in Illinois would reproduce the favorable results of this and other natural and accidental floods resulted in undertaking the present successful in- tentional flooding operations. From St. Francisville the plane took a course a little west of north most of the way back to Urbana. In its flight it passed over much of the old southeastern oil field which rests upon the crest of the LaSalle anticline through Lawrence, Crawford, and Clark counties. In central Crawford County there is a water-flood- ing operation on the Robinson sand. The whole Bellair pool at the north edge of Crawford County is being prepared for a new water-flood. Near Casey the last picture was taken (Fig. 6), the water supply plant at the Siggins oil field, where the Forest Producing Corporation *ells thrnuglioul and the Pure Oil Company are making water-flooding history. These many mil- lion dollar operations are a heartening expansion of the pioneer repressuring of the Mumford farm and water-flooding of the Kraft farm made by the writer many years ago. The plane veered northeast to pass over the Westfield oil field, now largely abandoned but historically important because it was the first great oil produc- ing field in Illinois. This flight around the major oil-pro- ducing fields in Illinois gives some idea of the areas of Illinois that are under- lain by oil and the 25,000 wells which bring it to the surface. Another flight across the center of the basin, from Willow Hill in Jasper County down the length of the Noble anticline to Fairfield in Wayne County, would also be im- pressive. The cumulative volume of oil whicli has been produced almost within the boundaries of this flight is 11/3 billion barrels. The area is still yielding 172 thousand barrels a day. Not only has the past production been impressive, but the future opportunities for additional oil from water-flooding and gas repressuring are vast. Every barrel of this oil is new wealth. throughout the fiel Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/airplaneviewsofi148squi