Our Gushing Oil Wells

By KATHRYN ROSS - Wellsville Daily Reporter
LITTLE GENESEE - With a pop and a gush, nearly 75 people watched oil history repeat itself in Allegany County Tuesday.

Back in the late '40s, old timers recalled it used to take place three or four times a day, but the last time an oil well was “shot” in Allegany County was over three years ago, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation officials who were on the scene Tuesday when Chris Kellner shot a well belonging to Ron Smith.

The well, a new well drilled over last winter and spring, is located on county Route 5 about 2.5 miles from the post office in Little Genesee.

“Shooting a well” is oil country terminology for dropping nitroglycerin into a well to fracture the surrounding rock for the purpose of increasing oil production by opening up pockets and fissures containing oil. In the old days, the life expectancy of a shooter was counted in days, because transporting the highly explosive nitroglycerin over rutted terrain was very often a fatal experience. John Herrick in “Empire Oil,” printed in 1949, relates that the remains of unlucky shooters were collected in cigar boxes, and buried in full-size coffins.

The procedure wasn't much different on Tuesday than that carried out by men named Garthwaite and VanCuren during the oil boom in the county as Kellner used an aluminum emulsion, primer cord, detonators and highly explosive dynamite to shoot Smith's well.

Kellner, who apprenticed under the retiring Glenn Benson, is trained and certified in the use of explosives. He is taking over ownership of Kellner Well Services, of Olean, which specialized in oil field explosives.

In a procedure very similar to loading a black powder rifle, Kellner packed six bags of aluminum-based explosive emulsion each weighing 30-pounds and two-feet long, into six, two-foot long sections of tin pipe. He lined the tin shells with primer cord and attached highly explosive dynamite and detonators to each end and wrapped them with tape. They were lowered into the hole, that had been drilled to 1,123 feet, after it was filled with sand and gravel to bring it up to a depth of 1,050 feet, the level the DEC approved for the explosion.

When the “shells' snagged in the hole, and had to be fished free, Kellner decided not to wrap the last five bags in tin. Instead, looking like a string of sausages they were lowered into the hole. The hole was created not by drilling with a rotary bit, but instead by slowly pounding the rock with an outfit called a spudder.

A total of 25 feet of explosives were place in the well. Smith hoped the shot well would increase production to four barrels a day. (A barrel of oil contains 42 to 45 gallons of oil.)

In the old days an iron ball called a “go devil” was dropped into the well to hit a firing pin and detonate the nitroglycerin, and the shooter would ‘go like the devil' for cover. Kellner's go devil was more like a terrorist's pipe bomb. Calling it a drop pack, he took a three feet long length of pipe and crimped one end. In the other end Benson, with the help of Bill Dibble, packed dynamite, attached detonators and fuse, stuffed in some wadding and constructed a bail from which to hang it.

Kellner, Smith and Benson then lit up cigarettes and strolled over to the circa 1947 Cyrus Erie “Spudder” rig with the go/pack in hand. They puffed furiously sending small clouds of blue smoke into the air as they walked. Then after lighting the fuse, with the hot end of their smokes, like in old western movies, they dropped the go/pack into the hole, and strolled back to the crowd.

The spectators had been told to retreat to the tree line of the tiny clearing.

As the men reached the tree line an audible pop was heard from the well, and a tiny vibration was felt through the soles of workboots and hiking shoes as a chain reaction explosion took place more than 1,000 feet under ground.

Then, the air above the mouth of the well shimmered with the release of gas which was followed by a jet of Richburg crude reaching twice the height of the 42 foot tall rig as it hurtled into the gray sky. Twisted tin, rocks, water and oil spewed over the muddy ground before the tide receded.

After the explosion Kellner said he was pleased with the efficiency of the light load. Earlier he exclaimed at the number of people who stood for five hours in the drenching rain waiting for the event.

“I've never had this many people at something like this or answered so many questions,” he said.

Smith, who has 24 wells that produce about 11 barrels a day, said he was pleased with the outcome and plans to have another well shot in the spring.

As for Tuesday's event, Smith said, shooting the well was historic, because it was done the old way.

“Today they use a method called hydrofraccing to increase production. This is the way it used to be done. It's the way it was done when I was a kid,” Smith said.

Smith is a third generation oil man, and cut his teeth in the oil business holding the dynamite for his father Richard and grandfather Gordon.

He believes that with the high cost of oil there will be renewed interest in drilling for oil in the Allegany County fields. Currently his oil, which is part of the Richburg Field, is shipped to Bradford, Pa., for refining.

DEC official Chris Miller said the number of permits for drilling in the six county area he covers has increased over the last couple of months to more than 30 a month.