Road Trip! Check out What the Oil Industry Is ACTUALLY Doing to America
The recent news of a large discovery of oil in Texas’ Permian Basin reminded me of how little everyday Americans know about the size and scope of the energy industry in this country. I certainly didn’t until I took a long trip across the country on backroads. What I learned is that there are working oil fields in places I never would have thought — all the way across this great land. Here is some of what I found.
But first, about that discovery. Earlier this month the U.S. Geological Survey announced that it had found 20 billion barrels of oil in the Wolfcamp Shale portion of the Permian Basin. The Permian Basin is where a young George W. Bush was an oilman. The discovery adds to the 264 billion barrels of oil that estimates place in the U.S. reserves. This means that because of recent advances in technology and discoveries the U.S. has more reserves than Saudi Arabia and Russia.
As I found out, much of those reserves are in places you never thought they would be, unless you are from those areas. While Alaska, North Dakota, and Texas are the states that immediately come to mind when thinking about oil and energy, the truth is oil is being pumped out of the ground in places most people wouldn’t even think of. Crude oil is being pumped out of the ground in 29 of the 50 states. I saw a lot of this production first hand.
To get a great idea of the history of oil production in America, a must see is the Drake Oil Well museum. This museum, located in Titusville, Pennsylvania, is a monument to the oil industry and American spirit. It tells the story of the early oil industry in Pennsylvania — something that is taught in school, but you think is a thing of the past. With new discoveries Pennsylvania currently pumps on average 500,000 barrels of oil per month out of the ground. Coupled with the gas shale boom in the area, the economy is booming again in that part of the country. It has people excited again.
Leaving northwestern Pennsylvania, I traveled through Cleveland down to the Ohio River valley straight through to Missouri. All along the way, I found a peculiar thing I had no idea about. Oil wells on farmland almost the whole way along that trip. Ohio alone pumps on average over two million barrels of oil per month out of the ground.
Most of this oil is located in those red counties that voted for Donald Trump back on November 8th. It represents some of the good jobs that are left in those areas. As I wrote shortly after the election, visiting the rest of the U.S. would do everyone good, especially coastal liberals who see the oil and energy industry as evil. Go visit and see the benefits the industry has on communities across the country. The oil industry is just one facet of daily life in vast swaths of the country.
After leaving the Ohio Valley I travelled to the upper Midwest, and I wasn’t that far from oil production for very long periods of time. One of the highlights of the trip for me was a tour of the North Dakota Bakken oil fields. What you see when you visit is an industry truly cognizant of environmental stewardship. Where in the Ohio Valley there were small wells on individual farms for miles, in North Dakota, because of newer horizontal drilling techniques, the oil was pumped from super pads. That means a large pad with multiple pumps, brought oil out of the ground from wells scattered over a large area. With this, the oil industry is able to minimize the footprint of their drilling, and pumping sites. It saves them money, and gives a smaller environmental footprint.
When compared to the large wind farms scattered across the country, the North Dakota oil fields have a much less noticeable visual impact. It was truly surprising to see.
More important than seeing the individual wells, and production across the country, was talking to people that were involved in the industry or affected by the booming micro economies in oil producing areas. In northwest Pennsylvania for instance, the new shale finds have put many, in a formerly economically depressed area back to work. It is especially noticeable after driving through the central part of the state and seeing economic malaise and then driving through the shale-affected areas and see houses freshly painted, new cars in driveways, and other markers of a thriving economy.
There are countless stories to be uncovered by visiting the parts of this country off the beaten path. When you travel to these places you uncover things about your own country you can’t really grasp by reading about them. Boring data, from the Department of Energy, becomes real life, with real people.
Do yourself, and America a favor. Get in your car and drive, and don’t worry about the oil. We got plenty. (For more from the author of “Road Trip! Check out What the Oil Industry Is ACTUALLY Doing to America” please click HERE)
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