Oil fields ground cover

Steve,

Do a web search for oil field landscapes, I did, derricks and surrounding ground area shown, Texas location.

John

In which region and year are the oil fields?   Are they drilling or pumping?   John in Lansing, ILL

Agree with Rattler21, ground and site conditions vary, not only by process but also by location.

If l was doing this for my layout, and era, by the seat of my pants, but as advised above, l would research it. I would have a sea of red mud scored with wheel tracks everywhere and littered with piles of pipe and rusty machinery.  Depending on location modeled there can be tufts of grass, or sagebrush.

I am very glad that none of you work for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality or the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

There are several well sites inside our city limits.  Children can play right up to the 30 by 30 plot of land immediately adjacent to the well hole.  In town at least, these sites have chain link fence around the pump jack (those rocking horse like structures that remain AFTER the well has been drilled, quietly and efficiently pumping oil to the surface.  The actual motor driving said pump jack can be propane or "raw natural gas" powered or it can and often is an electric motor.

If there is enough oil on the ground that it is visible from 200 feet away, some land owner will be calling the Corporation Commission and that will cause some oil field a large fine.

Even in the early 1960s when we moved to Osage County Oklahoma (a move of a whole 7 miles from downtown Ponca City, Kay County Oklahoma) onto the 160 acre small cattle and horse ranch my dad bought.  They drilled 4 wells on our 160 acres.  The Osage Nation got all the mineral rights.  (They were smart when they signed the treaty...all minerals below 18 inches are property of the tribe.)  The Osage Nation would issue their own fines.  IN ADDITION in many cases to the fines from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

Dad got the contract job to pump the wells and tank batteries on our place and about 3 other companies locations within about 3 miles of our place.  Around 20 wells as I recall.  He visited each of the sites daily.  If a cow could stick its neck thru the fence and get ANY oil by licking the ground or eating grass, dad called the maintenance and service crews to repair the leak or other source for the oil and then to clean up the ground.

If you think there is oil on the ground, you must be modeling the 1920s, perhaps the 30s.  After that, oil was expensive enough that no well lease site would have standing oil and few would have visible evidence of spillage.  Oil may have only been $5 per barrel but milk was 50 cents a gallon and gasoline was around 20 cents a gallon as late as 1965 when I started driving.

NO ONE wasted the resource intentionally.

Can you find some nasty looking places in photos?  I am sure you can.  But I can promise you that I had more problems with my mom when I walked across the barn lot than when I went with Dad to service the wells and gauge the tank battery in the morning.

Such "cleanliness" had very little to do with the environment or messy working conditions.  It had everything to do with money.  Oil on the ground was wasted money.  And IF a cow, goat, horse, sheep, hog, chicken happened to die...the oil production company paid.

Just a quick geography lesson.  Osage County is the largest county in Oklahoma in terms of area.  No so large in population.  Get a map of Oklahoma.  Osage County stretches from Ponca City OK (birthplace of Conoco) on the west to Bartlesville OK on the east (birthplace of Phillips 66).  The Kansas state line was the northern boundary of Osage County and the Arkansas River was the southern boundary.  (Adjacent to Tulsa, OK, for years nicknamed Oil Capital of the World.)

And if your lovely wife enjoys the "Pioneer Woman", the star Ree Drummond lives on and films her shows on the historic Drummond Ranch in...come on, you can say it with me, beautiful, scenic and historic...Osage County Oklahoma.

And you just thought we played football and had earthquakes.

=========================

If you want an oil well pump site to look realistic, it depends on the era.  From the mid 40s until early 60s, bare dirt about 10-20ft around any oilfield structure (well head, pump jack, heater-treater or other processing tower and tank battery.  By the mid 60s, small retention dams started showing up around tank batteries, but nothing that would "high center" a pick up truck or a well pulling unit (imagine a "derrick" on the back of a 10 wheel 2.5 ton truck to "pull" the pipe or sucker rod out of the well to work on the submersible pump at the bottom of the well. The pump attached to the sucker rod inside the "casing" pipe.)

Modern well sites that are "currently producing" usually have a nice gravel surface covering about a half acre or more if the tank battery was truck serviced or served multiple well sites.

Our well sites had gravel roads because our oil was transported out of the tank by an 18 wheel semi pulling 10,000 gallons of crude oil.  We had one tank battery on our land that collected from 6 wells (two not on our property).  The "lease" south of our property could only be reached by driving across our property...Dad made some money for that AND got the job pumping those wells.  That company had more wells, but because of the geography, you had to reach the wells on three different roads but on different sides of the canyon-valley and ravines because none were simple to bridge.  So Dad managed 4 batteries for that company and pumped around 12 well sites.

Tony Wright posted:

Children can play right up to the 30 by 30 plot of land immediately adjacent to the well hole. [...]

If there is enough oil on the ground that it is visible from 200 feet away, some land owner will be calling the Corporation Commission and that will cause some oil field a large fine.

No fines in my facility:

The kids are welcome. 

Tony is so correct.....  In OKC, Oklahoma City (we live in Tuttle, SW of OKC) there are active pumping wells in some grocery store parking lots, next to homes and subdivisions, too many to count along roads everywhere within the city limits.  The state capitol building, in OKC, has an active well on it's grounds.  At Will Rogers World Airport, South West of downtown OKC, there are active pump jacks along side of the runway, and still pumping out black gold.  I recall, when flying back home from Atlanta, an Eastern couple in front of me, and the lady pointed out the pump jacks along side while we landed.  The gentleman with her, in a NE accent, said to her "they are only there for the tourists".  I thought of correcting him, but did not, not wishing to take any wind out of his sails.  And, it would not be a polite thing to do in front of his female companion.  And, as Tony and others pointed out, it all depends upon the location and era you wish to model.  From the times when I was a rough neck on well locations in Texas in the '90s, the site had better be clean or the land owner would be very upset, along with state agencies and the site operators.  Along with the fines and other monetary penalties accrued.  Yep, earthquakes and football, along with the wildfires and ice storms, droughts and flash floods...... not to mention the largest twisters ever recorded on earth...... gotta love it, and do love living here... never a dull moment, living life to the fullest.

Jesse   TCA  12-68275 

I am certainly thankful for all this input. It has changed my approach to this project.

Regards,

Steve

Avanti:  Looks nice.  I am not certain how "prototype" your scene is.  The "derrick" (the green structure with the Sunoco sign) would not have been left in place in the years I lived on the ranch or helped Dad with the wells.  By then, the derrick was part of a motorized drilling rig that was simply driven to the new drill site, drilling was conducted until they decided it was dry or they hit oil.  Then the derrick was transported to the next well site while the production company installed the pump jack (that "rocking horse" structure that is visible under and inside the derrick in your scene) and began pumping crude oil.

I do not mean that your scene is "wrong"...it is just accurate for another time than my youth.  Permanent derricks were fairly common thru the early to mid 1950s.  Most of those older well sites have been cleaned up for multiple reasons, but the major reason was to "harvest" the unused steel for scrap metal.  At most well sites from the 40s and 50s, all you see remaining in most is the concrete foundation of the old drilling derricks...and an occasional pump jack and tank batteries (cluster of 2 to as many as 10 storage tanks for the collection of oil).  The transport of that oil would be typically tank trucks to nearby refineries or to pipeline collection docks where it would then be pumped to refineries.

The world has changed a lot in the Oklahoma oil fields.  Around 1950ish (give or take) there were a lot of refineries within 70 miles of my home in Ponca City.  (please note that I don't know that these were all gasoline refineries) There was a Derby refinery in Arkansas City Kansas, Globe Oil Refinery (Atlas makes a nice model of the Globe tank cars) and a Cities Service "gas plant" both in Blackwell, OK.  Enid had a Farmers Coop (Koch Nitrogen) fertilizer plant as well as a Champlain refinery (Atlas makes a very nice model of the Champlain tank cars). 

Cushing OK had a Kerr McGee Refinery (formerly known as Deep Rock; yes, like the Atlas model of the bulk fuel dealer, formerly the Walther's model structure.  Atlas also made a Deep Rock tank car.)  Also in Cushing was the home of Gibble Gas which was owned by Hudson when it closed in 1982.  Today, Cushing is the self proclaimed "Pipeline Capital of the World" and certainly has a significant number of crude oil storage tanks and various pipeline companies.  For over 30 years Cushing OK has been the "price settlement point" for West Texas Intermediate also known as Texas Light Sweet Crude Oil which is one of the most sought crude oil types for motor vehicle fuel.  Cushing brags around 85 million barrels of crude oil storage tanks.  There are at least 13 pipeline companies with connections in Cushing.  The Keystone Pipeline runs within 5 miles of my house on its way to Cushing.

Did I mention the earthquakes around here?  Never mind, that is another topic.

When I was in elementary school, Ponca City had two refineries divided by the Santa Fe tracks that serviced both.  The Conoco refinery was on the west side of the tracks along with the R&D division and the entire corporate management offices of Conoco.  All of the management has moved to Houston and with the merger with Phillips 66, most of the R&D has moved to the large Phillips campus in Bartlesville OK.  (Bartlesville was not home to any refinery that I recall in my lifetime.)

The east side of the tracks in Ponca was the Cities Service Refinery.  It was always the "poor cousin" compared to Conoco's larger facility.  That refinery was bought by Gulf Petroleum in the late 60s and sold to Conoco around 2000 give or take 5 or 10 years.  It was the "East Conoco Refinery".

After the Conoco Phillips 66 merger and subsequent reorganization, the entire Ponca City operation became the Phillips 66 Ponca City Refinery.  (It is hard to keep up these days...)

I mentioned Tulsa in a previous post.  Wichita had a couple of refineries and a "sister" plant to the Blackwell "Globe Refinery" was possibly in Tulsa and another "sister plant operated under a "cooperative agreement" was in mid central Kansas.

By now I assume that most readers' eyes have rolled back in their heads and their tongues are hanging out and they are screaming "enough" so loud the neighbor has called the cops believing "that model train guy next door is being beaten by his wife for buying another engine..."

Sorry about that.  I got on a roll.

Back to Pete's question and comment:  The oil well site you modeled looks just fine.  Maybe a steel barrel or two near the pump (you can't use crude oil for the lubricant of the motor driving the pump jack...too many impurities that would cause the motor to shut down forever).  Maybe a couple of pieces of steel pipe laying near by in case it was needed for some rerouting of pipe at the well site, or perhaps just left over from the casing pipe of the well.

And to Steve's "original post"...it is your model railroad.  Do what you want!

My only approach to MY railroad is that I have to be comfortable with a logical explanation of why something was done a certain way.  It simply needs to be believable "to me" and no one else.  So as long as the scenery is "homogenous" then I am pleased with the results...and please do not tell me those trees do not grow in the part of the world where I am modeling.

PS:  I am NOT a fine scale modeler.  I like Allen McClelland's approach:  "Good enough."

Tony, I really enjoy reading your rendition and information concerning the history and facts of Oklahoma oil production.  For those, myself included, in possession of all the SUNOCO tanks cars from Lionel..... there was a large SUNOCO refinery in Tulsa until 6 years ago when it was purchased and integrated with another local plant.  I have original photos of the SUNOCO refinery being constructed prior to 1920, some taken from atop the first erected towers, showing a good view of early Tulsa.  Yep, things have changed quite a bit.  Mules and gin poles have been replaced by hydraulic and some conventional lift cranes........   All depends upon the area and period you are modeling.

Jesse    TCA  12-68275

Jesse:

I had to go to Wiki to make sure I was accurate on this...

I keep forgetting Sunoco because....in the years I paid attention to such things, it was Sunray DX....merged with Sun Oil Co and became part of the Sunoco family.

Apparently the Holly Corp out of Texas bought the Sunoco AND the former Texaco-later Sinclair Refinery both in West Tulsa.

For those who know a little about Tulsa...or would like to know more:

West Tulsa is a "community" with some in the Tulsa city limits and some in Tulsa County...and there are neighborhoods that once were suburbs that still go by their name.   Those West Tulsans are a feisty bunch of folks.  Independent and tenacious.  I like them.  Both Sunoco and Texaco/Sinclair are kind of adjacent to the Arkansas River as it makes a 90 degree turn from flowing east our of Keystone Lake to travel south for about 10 miles before turning back east.  I-244 more or less parallels the north-south portion of the Arkansas River.  The former Sunoco/Sunray DX refinery (now Holly West refinery) sits to the west of I-244 at the banks of the Arkansas River.  The former Texaco/Sinclair (now Holly East refinery) is located along Southwest Blvd between Southwest Blvd and the Arkansas River from about West 25th to about West 35th.

Keeping this somewhat railroad oriented...

The Tulsa Sapulpa Union Railroad switches the Texaco/Sinclair - Holly East Refinery and I believe the BNSF (former Frisco/former BN) has switch duties at the Sunray DX/Sunoco - Holly West Refinery. 

Those of you who are interested can use your favorite satellite map software and find all this with the landmarks I gave you...including the former Frisco Cherokee Yard which lays on the west side of I-244 from about 21st Street to about 35th Street.  The Wye at the north end of the yard is the connection to the former Frisco branch that went thru Enid OK and terminated at Avard OK where the former Frisco interchanged with the Santa Fe just a few miles north of Waynoka OK and its beautiful Harvey House and Santa Fe Depot.

Over the past 3 or 4 years the BNSF has been quietly upgrading overpasses and grade crossings and putting in new rail on that Tulsa-Avard line.  Rumor is they plan to run triple stack intermodal.  I no longer work in that area, so I lost my source.  But they have increased traffic on that line by "a lot".

A brief return to the Ponca City discussion in my previous monologue...

I neglected to mention that the former Cities Service/Gulf refinery was switched and served by the Rock Island prior to bankruptcy and abandonment.  Most of the industrial track is now property of the Conoco Phillips refineries.  There is no longer any other shipper on the former Rock Island track UNLESS the spur to the Ranch Drive Coop is still in place.

And Finally. (It means no more to me than it means to politicians...)  Ahem, as I was saying, finally...for those who want to be able to speak like a native...

Regarding the pronunciation of the name: Arkansas River.  Such a simple thing.

Our friends to the north (the great state of Kansas, the land of Oz) pronounce the name of the river as the "R"-Kansas River.  (I was informed that was a state law.  I am a law abiding man.)  Most Okies (it's OK if I call us Okies, you may call us Oklahomans) call that river the same name as the state of Arkansas (the natural state) "Ar-Kan-Saw" River.

Should any of you get lost on your way from York and end up in Tulsa, there is a nice hobby shop in Sand Springs OK, it is called Main Street Trains, 126 N Main Street, Sand Springs..about 7 miles due west of downtown Tulsa on US412, take any Sand Springs exit and ask a local.  My understanding is he is open "most week ends" and I suggest you call by phone to confirm.  He has a nice display layout, worth stopping if it is open.

That's all I got.

Tony Wright posted:

Avanti:  Looks nice.  I am not certain how "prototype" your scene is.

I can assure you, that scene was extensively researched, and it is 100% accurate--reflecting standard practice in Lionelville, U.S.A. ca. 1957.  

[Just joking around. I really appreciate your great historical and "local color" essays. My layout is firmly in the "childhood fantasy" camp, with touches of "faux realism" here and there. Given that, I am flattered by your positive comments. Considering the source, any critique better than "that's totally ridiculous" I take as a compliment!]

I am serious when I say it looks fine.  I tend to be a little too anal retentive when trying to answer questions...and I do not mean to sound "authoritative".

The beauty of O gauge, especially with 3 rail O, is that you can do anything you want and it is all good.  All I intended to do is point out that oil wells are not eco disasters and look what I did...I am ashamed.  But with the ice storm locally, I feel a lot less stress now that I sit and think about it.

Your reply that you are modeling "childhood fantasy" and "faux realism" is a perfectly acceptable goal for anyone. 

I had a problem as a child with mixing toys that did not fit.  By the age of 7 or 8, I had issues with relative size (scale) and using those items together.  If my Tonka dump truck was 5 inches tall and 14 inches long while my Buddy L semi truck was 3 inches tall and 10 inches long, I could not play with them together.

A long time friend once told me that when he asked what time it was, he would appreciate if I did not tell him how the clock was built.

That pretty well sums my personality.

That historical part was simply a rant.  For that I apologize to all who read it.

From a work trip a few years ago out in Hobbs NM

You have to remember that once the hole is drilled, the derrick is moved to the next drill site.  At that point the hole is capped off until the  well hole pump is installed.  They will usually have some tanks near the pump, or run hoses or pipes from several pump jacks to a set of tanks.  The tanks get emptied by the tank trucks as you would expect.

As was said above, there is absolutely no tolerance for any type of spill be it diesel, crude or otherwise in this day and age.  There is containment around everything, this is an example of the containment on the Diesel storage tanks next to the diesel gensets.  In this case the gensets were three CAT 3512's spinning Kato generators and out 1MW each.

There is no question that today's oilfield is SIGNIFICANTLY more eco friendly than back in 60-65 when they were drilling on our property.  But Dad had everything under control. 

While we were not entitled to any more than damages since the income from the lease and a percentage of all oil was payable to the Osage Nation, land owners were able to get very sympathetic juries in civil suits for damages in Osage County District Court.  Small population.  Juries were typically local farmers, ranchers, the guy at the grocery store and the occasional school teacher or mechanic.  Any lawsuit involving the oil field was viewed as "Goliath oil versus the small rancher or land owner".

Dad was wiser than most land owners.  He did not sue.  He threatened and then made a very reasonable solution to the issue.  HE was the landowner.  The wells were on HIS property and driving the drilling rig, tank trucks, all the other construction required and in THOSE days, there were no pretty tanks to hold the drilling water/drilling mud, the dug large pits that held the water used to flush the over burden out of the well hole. 

A compound was and still is added to make the water more lubricating to the drill bits...called drilling mud.  So, those pits had to sit months or years before they could be covered over.  It was not uncommon for livestock to get thru the fence, drink the water and die.

Who better than the land owner to make sure the fences stayed up, the tank batteries never overflowed with crude oil and salt water killing trees and all vegetation for yards around drilling sites?  Thus keeping all the lawsuits from ever becoming lawsuits.

Oil companies found my Dad's solution very favorable once they realized he knew enough about "plumbing" to understand how the pipes were connected.  A week riding around with the "land man" and learning the set up of the on site production equipment from the guys setting it up (outside contractor as in not part of the drilling crew nor employees of the production company)  Those guys took a liking to Dad and taught him the basics...they also learned that they had better stop at the house before driving thru the cattle guard as Dad wanted to be on site when they were here.  When he called for a labor crew, they realized that he would tell them where and how he wanted things done.

This would have gone on for several more years except the production company had to shut down some off shore drilling rigs in the Gulf...and those had some 20 year employees who were promised a paying job and the chance to be closer to family, even if it meant smaller pay checks.  Dad stepped aside but always kept his thumb on the new pumper until they understood each other.

I recall when the pumper told Dad to mind his own business.  The next day, the chain was across the cattle guard, and Dad was sitting in his pick up with a shotgun.  He politely told the pumper to call the production guy and tell him the law suit for access would probably only cost them around $10,000 in attorney fees and Dad would win.  The pumper came back 24 hours later with the production guy and they walked from the county road to our house, 1/4 mile down a private gravel road.

That is about the time Dad decided to lease a gas station on the highway.  And that is another story...

Can you start to see how I got to be the way I am?

Tony Wright posted:

Jesse:

....................Should any of you get lost on your way from York and end up in Tulsa, there is a nice hobby shop in Sand Springs OK, it is called Main Street Trains, 126 N Main Street, Sand Springs..about 7 miles due west of downtown Tulsa on US412, take any Sand Springs exit and ask a local.  My understanding is he is open "most week ends" and I suggest you call by phone to confirm.  He has a nice display layout, worth stopping if it is open.

That's all I got.

 

Was just there last weekend and bought a few items from him, I live just north of Tulsa. Any of you guys ever eat at Ollies Station Restaurant?

Tony Wright posted:

 

Can you start to see how I got to be the way I am?

There is a way of telling stories that makes them captivating even if one has no connection to the content.

I think you nailed it--I read the entire thread

(and I've never come close to even setting foot in the region where all this took place)

---PCJ

Several books written about Osage County, OK - lots of history there. There was once a biker rally held there that make Sturgis look tame. Was never at either but know people who have been to both, and oh-my the stories of what happened in Osage county.

4G-Man:  I could not for the life of me remember the name of that place.  That is the place just off Southwest Blvd and almost UNDER the overpass?  Trains running around the ceiling on shelf layout?  That was a fun place to go eat.  I ate there at least once with OGR forum member LAMING after an NMRA meet in Tulsa...maybe.  That was probably around 1980-85 sometime???  I know I found it one other time.  Wasn't it near where the rail museum was eventually built several years ago? Maybe I have that all wrong.

The biker rally happened long after I left Osage Co Sheriff's Office.  I worked there in 1972.  Moved to Blackwell OK city police in 73 and in Oct 73 moved to Stillwater OK PD.  Retired in 2001.  There are stories in all towns...and stories in all counties.  Most are best left untold.

Railride:  If you buy me a piece of coconut crème pie, I will tell a few of those stories.  Buy me a piece of apple pie a la mode and I will tell a few more than I would for the coconut crème.  Steak dinner gets the entire evening.  (smile)

Of course, there are some stories I can't tell...the statute of limitations has not expired on a few of those.  (smile)

Tony, thanks for the info on the Sunoco and Sinclair refineries in Tulsa.  As I was writing last night t was from memory, I was up late due to keeping an eye on the ice storm and animals.  The firm I retired from 4 years ago, Benham/SAIC/Liedos Construction, did the plant conversions for Holly, essentially joining the two together and they operate as one.  I have been by there many times, and Benham also had contract, and worked, the Holly refinery just North of Salt Lake City, Utah.  We, the firm, is a design/build company and I, as all Benham employees, were construction management on site.  I liked this, working all across our great nation, gave me many opportunities for visiting LHS and antique shops for many O gauge items I now own.  The variety and extent of train related items varies from each area of America, and have seen/purchased from all directions/locals in the 14 years I worked for Benham Constructors Design/Build, in all the name changes/partnerships we went through.

Tony and 4G,  Thanks for the info on the Tulsa LHS in Sand Springs.  Will have to check it out next time we go to Jenks the visit the aquarium and the great shops, restaurants there.  Again, Tony, thanks for the kick start to my memories.  Years ago, when younger, made the ride to Sturgis from Houston with friends.  Interesting to hear of Osage County gathering..... brings back memories of my youth..... LOL!!   But now more mature, and much wiser......

Jesse

Tony Wright posted:

Can you start to see how I got to be the way I am?

It must be in the name, Tony.

I'm the same.     - but for different reasons. 

Man, it don't get better than this..   Oil & Gas production  and O gauge trains.  Retired "Company Man" for a major Oil & Gas Company.  Here's few for my old pictures.

Gas well in Texas Panhandle, no oil on the ground here.

Wireline work on a Gas well, no oil on the ground here.

paraffin out of a pumping oil well, the paraffin will be placed in the steel cans for recycling.

Flat Texas Panhandle, Moving in service unit to repair well.

My layout's gas well, production unit and tank battery with a pipeline/rail terminal.

My father ( second man on left) working on a oil well in the early 1950's.

And I was telling you about the refineries in West Tulsa.  HA!  I have a hunch you visited all the good train watching spots while in Tulsa.  What else is there to do when you are a hard working, married man away from home for days or weeks at a time?

We have made that trip to Jenks several times.  Almost directly across the Arkansas River is Red Rock Canyon Grill.  It gets 3 stars from my wife and I.

As for the Osage County Biker Rally.  I was long gone when it happened.  The humorous part of the story is the County Jail was across the road from the biker rally.  The rally was on Osage Nation land, so the deputies could not go in to stop fights unless requested by the Tribal Police.  They had orders to NOT call the Sheriff.  Then, on the last day, the deputies all left before the rally was over...or so I was told.  And they parked one mile away each direction and started to pull over every biker.  The OHP and local city police were involved as well.

For the record, that kind of mentality has disappeared in most relationships between professional law enforcement agencies regardless of municipal, county, state or Tribal. 

And we have strayed too far from railroading.

CBS072:  Nice photos.  What I love is how photos of the region disprove the term "flat for as far as you can see".  Lots of elevation changes.  That should let the folks back east know it is not as flat as they are told.

But I do know places in the Oklahoma flatlands where you can park your car at night and stand in the bed of the pick up and see at least five small towns.  Impossible to get lost.  The only reasons you will find roads going any direction other than North-South and East-West are "following the railroad" or "parallel to the creek or river" or "river ahead so we have to find a crossing we can get the wagon across" (old wagon trails became state highways in the 20s-50s.  And finally, there are the "short cuts".  Usually folks just cut across your property to get from small town to slightly larger town or county seat.  Those were the wagon trails I discussed...some of those are now I-44 from St Louis to Wichita Falls TX thru Tulsa and Oklahoma City and Lawton (connecting at least two Air Force bases and one US Army post. 

CBS072 and others:  I have questions about gas wells.  Around here, natural gas is (was) simply vented as an unwanted by product in the production (pumping) of crude oil.  The quantity of gas was so small as to be a waste of effort to capture, contain, transport and refine...or so I recall being told.  Every tank battery has some kind of process in our part of the world...separator or heater-treater (some kind of distiller or whatever that mostly was used to take out some impurities or so I recall being told.  "Drip gas" and water and vapor were the three impurities I recall us being concerned with as the pumper crew).  There was often a vent pipe somewhere near the tank battery site.  On occasion, that gas would be lighted to flame away the gas.  We had raw casing head natural gas processed thru the ? heater treater ? and that gas was sent to all the wells on that tank battery to run the pump jack...big old one cylinder natural gas motors that ran the pulley that turned the weight on the pump jack.

Sound right to you guys that actually knew what you were doing in the oil field?

So what do you do to the western Oklahoma/Texas panhandle/and other region "natural gas well sites"?  The commodity/product is raw gas/vapor, right?  Would that be sent to pressure containment vessels?  Then transported the same way to a processing plant/refinery? Would the containment tanks be "bullet end" like a propane tank on a farm or would the standard tank battery cylinder vessel be adequate given a different way to gauge the internal level rather than open a hatch and drop a line??? 

Do gas wells also produce some crude oil?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Tony Wright posted:

4G-Man:  I could not for the life of me remember the name of that place.  That is the place just off Southwest Blvd and almost UNDER the overpass?  Trains running around the ceiling on shelf layout?  That was a fun place to go eat.  I ate there at least once with OGR forum member LAMING after an NMRA meet in Tulsa...maybe.  That was probably around 1980-85 sometime???  I know I found it one other time.  Wasn't it near where the rail museum was eventually built several years ago? Maybe I have that all wrong.

The biker rally happened long after I left Osage Co Sheriff's Office.  I worked there in 1972.  Moved to Blackwell OK city police in 73 and in Oct 73 moved to Stillwater OK PD.  Retired in 2001.  There are stories in all towns...and stories in all counties.  Most are best left untold.

 

Railride:  If you buy me a piece of coconut crème pie, I will tell a few of those stories.  Buy me a piece of apple pie a la mode and I will tell a few more than I would for the coconut crème.  Steak dinner gets the entire evening.  (smile)

Of course, there are some stories I can't tell...the statute of limitations has not expired on a few of those.  (smile)

You remember the location of Ollies correctly; still there and still running trains. You are also correct, from the stories I heard from guys who actually attended, some things are best left in the past.

Most of the oil wells that I have worked around, the natural gas  and fluid production first goes thru a gas separator to remove the gas from the fluid and  fluid goes into a heater-treater to separate the oil and water.  The oil to a oil tank and the water to a water tank.  The natural gas is used to fuel the pumping unit engines if used on the lease and heater-treater fire burners.  Extra natural gas that is not used on the lease is sold into a low pressure gas pipeline.  The oil is sold and transported by pipeline or truck and the water to hauled off by truck and injected back into a well, into a water zone different than the oil production zone or into the same oil zone to push the oil to a oil well.

On gas wells, the wells will produce natural gas, water and condensate(oil).  Most gas wells have more well head pressure that oil wells.  The gas wells that I have been around had shut in well head pressures from vacuum to 13,000 pounds per square inch  (PSI).  Some gas wells just have a well head and a gas sales pipeline and produce only gas.  On the higher pressure and deeper gas wells the gas/oil/water first goes into a "Production Unit" that lowers the well head pressures down to pipeline pressures (100 PSI to 1000 PSI) and separates the water and condensate (oil).  The condensate and water are then sold like the oil and water from oil wells.

Oil and condensate comes in many different colors, from clear like water, brown, yellow, green, red and black.  Oil and condensate can have the velocity of water or a velocity like grease and have to be heated to flow.

The old pumpers like "drip gas" because they could burn it in the their pickups like gasoline.  "Drip gas" is the natural gasoline that "drips" from raw natural gas in the winter (if takes cold temperature to separate).  The old pumpers know which wells make the best and most "drip gas" to use in their pickups.  (and so do many teenagers that don't have gas money for Saturday night)

The natural gas from a oil/gas well goes into a gas pipeline to a "Gas Plant" that separates the ethane (used to make plastic, chemicals),methane (house gas) propane/butane( house gas) and C6+ (chemicals, gasoline, etc).  Your gas that heats your home may have started out at 10,000 PSI but is down to a few ounces of pressure going into your home.  FUN is standing next to a wellhead that has a rated pressure of 10,000 PSI and you have 10,500 PSI on it.  Oil field equipment has a safety factor of 50 to 100%.  So a pipe connection maybe rated for 2,000 PSI but is designed with a 100% safety factor of 4,000 PSI.

AND back to the subject.. just put dirt/rock on the well location and oily dirt/rock up next to the well head if it's a oil well.

Dad nearly blew up a heater treater with drip gas.  He usually kept a 5 gallon can that was previously crankcase oil for the pump motors. Rather than discard when empty, dad would fill them with drip.  About a gallon every time he filled the pick up.  He did not get too worried about "cleaning out" the oil can before putting drip in it.  He said it helped to keep the drip from burning too hot.  He was also known to add a gallon of diesel to every other tank after we bought the gas station.  Said it was good lube for the valves.  All I know is he never blew up his pick up or my 55 Chevy.  And we used drip in Mom's car and the tractor.

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Oh, that "nearly blew up..." story?  My job at the Lessert least was to climb the stairs and gauge the tank then get back in the truck.  Dad decided as I was coming down the steps that he wanted to get the drip out of the heater treater.  It was windy and COLD.  So when Dad said "get in the truck, I will just be a minute." I did what I was told.  Apparently the wind either caught the fumes or some of the drip gas was blown into the open flame inside the heater treater...the results were very attention getting.  A quick flash and Dad dropped the 5 gallon can and ran for the truck.  The flames were getting a little bigger now that the can was on its side.  Dad opened the pick up driver door and told me to come out his side, putting the body of the truck between us and the mishap.  That is about when the flames got inside the can and the restricted space and heat and expanding gas...KABOOM! (insert big "Kaboom!" sign from the Batman TV show of the 60s)

Flames went almost to the top.  We stayed put.  Flames finally began to die down.  Dad put on his welding gloves and went over to the heater treater.  I called out that I could run up to the nearby farm and call the fire department...he said "Be quiet and wait."  He managed to finally get the blowing fumes coming out of the pipe to shut off and the flames died out on their own.  The entire side of the heater treater was scorched.  He waited 2 months and called the service crew for a couple of various jobs and then he told them to bring 5 gallons of aluminum paint and a 20ft ladder.

When the company man came along a couple of months later, nothing was said.

Truly impressive to a 14/15 year old kid.

By the way...just to keep this railroad related....

From the cat walk on the tank battery on OUR lease AND from the tank battery on the Lessert lease, you could look west across the Arkansas River towards the Conoco Refinery and tank farm south of US60 (actually the Catalyst Cracking Unit that dad helped pour the concrete base for back in the 30s when he drove a concrete truck for Baughman Concrete in Ponca City...all three concrete plants in Ponca City were working 24 hour cycles and the companies rented concrete trucks from surrounding towns so that there was always a line of 5 or 6 trucks in front of each truck 24 hours a day for around 2 or 2.5 days.  Dad said you could sneak out of the truck long enough to hit the outhouse and one of the guys would move your truck forward in line as the trucks moved...but you had to be back when it was loaded.  You got a cup of coffee every trip at both ends refinery and concrete plant. Every few hours they would pass around sandwiches as you loaded out.

And on the "far side" (west) of the Cat Cracker, you could see the Santa Fe tracks and occasionally watch a train from that vantage point.  Until Dad started honking.

From that vantage point, you could see all the way to the Salt Fork River about 7 miles south of highway 60 and the refinery.  Santa Fe angled southwest after leaving the confines of the refinery on the way toward Oklahoma City going thru several smaller towns en route.  Going north, the train would pass thru the Ponca City yard and then continue north thru two small towns until it crossed the Arkansas River just north of the Okla/Kansas state line as the train entered the Arkansas City Santa Fe division point and yard.  Frisco and the Missouri Pacific both interchanged with the Santa Fe in Arkansas City.

The Rock Island crossing was immediately south of the Cat Cracking unit.  The north east terminus of that line was a mile further north after passing thru the Cities Service/Gulf refinery the line stopped about a block north at the Rock Island depot and freight house.  I never saw a passenger train on that line.  From Ponca City the Rock Island went west to the next town Tonkawa before turning south-southwest and headed eventually to Enid, OK to the north end of town which included 6 or 8 major terminal grain elevators and the Champlain refinery.

The Santa Fe line to Oklahoma City would eventually take you to Galveston (Houston connection) if you went "Santa Fe - All the way".

OK, unless you guys want me to start telling stories about when I was in a rock and roll band...I am out of stories that are fit for public discussion.

This thread also brings back many memories for me, as a kid growing up in West Texas Oil Country, Midland, Texas. The years of my growing up there, 1952 - 1967 were a time of much exploration and active influence on all aspects of life in West Texas and growing up there.  As a Boy Scout many weekend campouts were spent at long abandoned "oil camp towns", several former Mobil Oil property.  One in particular was named "Pegasus" and the stories of ranchers, wind mills, cow tanks and meteorites are very fond reflections.  My dad worked for WE Pittman Trucking, in Midland, and I rode with him on many trips for years.  He delivered drill pipe, casing, etc. to many locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico when I rode with him.  I always stayed in the truck, (safety and common sense) and witnessed many well site operations years before I actually did the same type work myself.  In construction as iron worker, rigger, crane operator, supervision and Safety, helped build several petrochemical and chemical plants along the Houston ship channel and Baytown, Texas region.  To model the oil industry in it's various aspects (well to final production) has kept many a layout builder/operator busy and made use of their skills.  Such is the theme of this topic, and information presented by all participants will be/is beneficial to all. 

Jesse  TCA

Oh yeah... being in a rock and roll band(s) in Houston during the '70s..........  LOL!!!  Another time and place, for certain......

Jesse

There is a reason I did not decide to model a refinery.  The availability of enough railcars is a significant problem.  Most rail shipment from refineries occurred in the 60s and earlier, while tank cars still move via rail, it is far quicker and cheaper for marketing companies (like Oklahoma's Quik Trip Corp or 7-11 or Circle K or so many others...they get tank truck deliveries daily if they sell a lot of fuel, maybe two deliveries.  After all, it has to be taken by truck the last few miles regardless.  Towns the size of Tulsa, especially Tulsa, will have a public loading facility where tank trucks pull in to be loaded.  The facility manager will check the electronic order and the ID of the truck and driver before approving the tank truck be loaded.  Fuel is transported and dropped immediately into the underground tanks.  It would not surprise me that QuikTrip in Tulsa has a fleet of 6 or 8 or perhaps 10 tank trucks for delivery (and spares when one is down for service or repair)...and they probably run 2 or 3 shifts daily.  It seems to me that I was told one local trans shipment location is near Glenpool on the SW side of Jenks and the East side of Sapulpa near US75.

Not once is any of that fuel transported via rail.  Shipped via pipeline from the local refineries to the transfer point, loaded into a tractor-trailer tank truck, delivered to a regional retail outlet.  That region could be as much as a 50 mile circle...or more.

A "local" retail chain "On Cue" is giving QuikTrip and 7-11 a run for its money as On Cue expands.  (strong rumor is the company is now partially owned by Phillips 66.)  The original company was a home town wholesale-retail operation that owned maybe two dozen convenience stores...and now they are opening one every two weeks or less.  And the fuel comes directly out of the Ponca City public loading dock at the Conoco-Phillips refinery.

Much of the crude oil in my part of the world is shipped from well head to a tank battery via pipeline.  From there, it is delivered to a broker via pipeline which takes the crude to Cushing OK.  One of my earlier posts discussed the importance of Cushing OK to the US crude oil market.  Oil is moved via pipelines in most cases.

Some exotic chemicals will still be shipped by rail.

Rail transport of crude oil in areas where there is controversy regarding pipelines are moving large quantities of crude oil.

I doubt there are very many "onesy twosy" delivery of refined petroleum (gasoline, diesel) customers around the country except in fairly rural areas.  I am sure there are a few exceptions, but I don't see a lot of small town bulk fuel dealers located along the railroad right of way the way it was in the 60s and earlier.

Tony, another reason for my trying to model my layout no recent than perhaps the early '60s.  this goes for railroad stock and motive power, car, trucks, industry and other aspects.  Just as I had to finally relegate myself to fewer names in railroads (Western lines, though not exclusive), approx. time frame (1940 - 1965) and mode of operations.  Another good thread on here is the one covering tank cars from the '40s period.  It fits right in.

Jesse

Tony, I sent e-mail. I did not see where I could send a PM.

I picked 1963 because I like the zebra striped Santa Fe road switchers, but I "might" want to add a blue and yellow early paint scheme which is 1963.

I can have a bulk fuel dealer, wood frame grain elevator in small towns, still run wooden ice reefers and livestock cars.  40ft boxcars were still common not that it would matter that much to me.

Honestly, I did not "foam at the mouth" over railroads in the 60s, but I always looked.

More!

Growing up in Midland in the '50s/early '60s, I recall some of the early diesels and some steam on the MP/TP line that ran a couple miles South of our neighborhood.  With not many trees to block the sound, and that dry, clear desert air, sounds of rail activity and movement was easily audible.  Around1962 I heard the distinct sound of a steam whistle, my mother drove me over to the tracks to investigate.  There was a work train on the main line MP/TP and motive power was a smaller size steam engine.  Do not recall the wheel arrangement, too excited for the moment.  I do recall it was Texas Pacific (had "Texas" on the tender) and the engineer let me up into the cab.  It was very hot, as I recall, and a little noisy for a young man.  I was given a couple pieces of coal by the engineer for souvenirs, and I recall the work cars were located to the front of the engine, there were a couple flats and a derrick car, or "crane" car as I called them as a boy.  Only would have been nice if I, or my mother, had thought of taking pictures.  However, the memories and vivid excitement of a young, Lionel/Marx running, West Texas boy are very well cherished and loved.  My dad and I ran trains together all the time I was growing up, until his passing in 1978.  Honestly, it took me over a year to bring myself to dismantle/remove the layout from his home and move it all to mine back in Houston.  It was only at the request of my mother, and the fact my son was then two years old and it was time for him to become more involved.

OK, a little back on topic, should anyone wish to be more "prototypical" in modeling a well site, many times a "board road" has to be constructed to handle the trucks hauling the rig sections, pipe, draw works, and earth moving equipment required.  Does not do any good to have all the trucks and equipment becoming stuck or bogged down in surrounding soils, or possibly a farmer/rancher's fields.  This would be later replaced with a compacted gravel road, with culverts installed were required for drainage.  Also, as Tony referred to, there were the mud pits and settling ponds needed, later pumped out and removed/covered over.  And believe me, when I operated cranes over the road, many times to well locations, it was never easy to drive an eleven foot wide 300 ton crane over the board roads with sharp turns and hope they didn't give way under the weight.  Ah, the work and excitement involved, climbing the derrick, riding in a man basket to the crown, all else... I really did like the work and glad I had the opportunity to be involved and have on my resume'.  Later, when managing construction on Great Lakes Naval Base in North Illinois, the Navy Contractor Manager many times told me he was surprised at all the past experience I had in all aspects of crane operations and construction Safety.  Yep, anywhere from 500 ton lifts in a Rohm and Haas Chemical plant, new construction in South East Texas, or oil well locations all over Texas, trains also played a part, a big part at times.  Not to mention years working the docks in Houston area and off loading refinery equipment from rail cars to later load out on ships and barges bound for the West Indies and other Caribbean islands.  All involving the railroad and getting to work with it, near it, climbing all over it to get the job done.  And looking back, loved every minute of it, no matter how hot, tired, dirty or disgusted I may have been sometimes, and no matter how long the days... sometimes sixteen hours plus.......    Gotta love it.......    Yep, getting carried away with memories.

Jesse   TCA