Ohio Oil and Gas Production

The petroleum industry in Ohio dates from 1859. Ohio continues to produce significant quantities of oil and gas, having produced more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas since 1860. Unconventional resources, primarily in eastern Ohio, are likely to increase production in Ohio.

In late 1859, blacksmith William Jeffrey drilled the first well in Ohio specifically intended to produce petroleum. This well is located in Mecca Township, Trumbull County, northeast of Warren. In 1860, similar activity occurred in Macksburg.

Oil production climbed year after year, especially after major oil and gas reserves were found in Wood County in northwest Ohio in the 1880s. From Toledo to Lima and into Indiana, the Bowling Green Fault fractured the Trenton Formation limestone, in which hydrocarbons were trapped by overlying rock. In 1891, the likely first overwater drilling operations in the world occurred in Grand Lake, where more than 100 wells were drilled in less than 10 years. Between 1895 and 1903, Ohio was the leading producer of crude oil in the country and thereafter was surpassed by Texas and Oklahoma. The Trenton limetone produced more than 380 million barrels of oil and 2 trillion cubic feet of gas, peaking in 1896 at 23.9 million barrels of oil. Large scale production of oil continued into the 1930s. Due to inefficient early drilling techniques, the oil fields rapidly lost pressure.

During this period, many towns in Ohio experienced rapid boom-to-bust cycles. The usefulness of natural gas was not discovered until the 1880s. Up until then, it was considered a “nuisance.” Findlay was “the gas capital of Ohio in late 1885.” For example, in Findlay, the first commercial natural gas well began producing in 1884. In 1886, the productive Karg Well (over 10,000,000 cubic feet/day) and other wells resulted in so much gas being flared that Findlay was known as the "City of Light" and free fuel and light attracted many industries, including glass. By 1888, Findlay was one of the largest glass production centers. The gas was assumed to be "inexhaustible". By 1890, gas output began to decline.

In 1883, Ohio ranked fifth among oil-producing states, behind Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and California; its total production of 47,000 barrels of oil that year was less than one percent of the nation's oil output. But Ohio production climbed rapidly, and in 1895 Ohio became America's leading oil-producing state. Ohio oil production peaked in 1896 at 24 million barrels, but Ohio continued as the leading oil state until 1902, when that title was taken by Oklahoma.

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