Ten Years Application of Compressed Air at Hamilton Corners, Pa., with Core Studies of the Producing Sand

In 1914, the officials of the Brundred Oil Corpn., faced with the problem ofintroducing new methods to increase production in the old and nearly depletedpools of Venango County, became interested in the Smith-Dunn (Marietta) processwhich was at that time being tried out in southeastern Ohio and which wasalready yielding very encouraging results. A license to use the process inPennsylvania was secured from the owners of the patents. These patents werelater declared invalid. The method was first used in Pennsylvania on a property consisting of about434 acres, of which 300 are productive, at Hamilton Corners, 15 miles northwestof Oil City, in Cherry Tree and Oakland Townships, Venango County. Theproducing horizon is the First Sand of the Venango Group. A small oil pool wasopened up in this vicinity in 1904. By July, 1916, when the compressed air wasfirst introduced to restore pressure, the production had dropped to a pointwhere it was no longer possible to continue profitable operation. From thattime until March, 1927, over 100,000 bbl. of oil have been recovered from thetract. The property is being operated at present by the Brundred Oil Corpn. andLux. The 1926 production, amounting to 10,650 bbl., was only 400 bbl. short ofthe maximum reached during any year of the 10-year period that the process hasbeen in operation. Inasmuch as the Hamilton Corners pool is the first one in Pennsylvania inwhich the Marietta process was tried out, and the one in which it has beenlongest in continuous operation, considerable interest attaches to the resultsobtained. Through the courtesy of H.D. Brown and W.J. Brundred, officials of theBrundred Oil Corpn., all their data on this operation were made available tothe writer in connection with an investigation of rejuvenation methods in theState for the Pennsylvania Geological Survey.