Old-timers still enjoy telling the stories when drilling for oil was an adventure spiced with unknowns and danger. After Edwin Drake successfully brought crude oil to the surface by drilling in 1859, it soon became apparent that some wells were unprofitable because of slow delivery of crude.
The Evolution of Shooting the Well
Before Drake’s oil well, there were water wells. The story goes that some unknown person discovered — perhaps serendipitously — that firing a rifle down a dry water well sometimes caused water to flow again. Geologically, the story is not difficult to believe, as the sound generated by a loud enough gunshot might be able to cause shifting of underground rock strata and allow trapped water to find a new route into the empty well.
In 1865, near the same spot of Drake’s well, Col. E.A.L. Roberts used black powder to enhance the flow of a reluctant oil well. Perhaps he was inspired by the practice of firing a gun into a water well, perhaps not. Nevertheless, his effort was a success. A new business was born that increased the overall productivity of the burgeoning Pennsylvania oil industry.
Nitroglycerine Leads to Moonlighting
Within a few years newly discovered liquid nitroglycerine — LNG — was widely used to shoot wells. LNG had the advantage of being much more powerful than black power or any other explosive of the period. Some well shooters used a mixture of black powder and LNG. The instability of LNG was not respected by the uninformed. Bubbles, small impurities, or warm temperatures could result in spontaneous detonation and death.
LNG also had its own interesting history as deadly and unstable. Factories manufacturing it were prone to explode, and deaths from its use were numerous. Alfred Nobel developed and patented a stable form now known as “dynamite,” and made a fortune, but not before his plant in Germany had been twice destroyed by explosions.
LNG, despite its well-established tendency to invite disaster, became the preferred explosive with well-shooters. The use of LNG was eventually prohibited because of increasing death count, lawsuits involving the well-shooting business, and other contentious issues.
Consequently, well-shooters worked under cover of darkness mixing their explosives in daylight and hauling the dangerous concoction to wells cloaked in darkness or perhaps in the moonlight — allegedly giving birth to the term “moonlighting.” Many deaths occurred over the years and into the 20th century from the use of LNG in well-shooting.
The LNG was lowered into the well and exploded. The resulting blast would throw oil, water, and debris hundreds of feet into the air, and hopefully create new channels for oil to flow to the bore hole. The process was not precise, but successful in enough cases to become an industry that survived into the 20th century.
Liquid nitro became increasing difficult to obtain due to laws prohibiting its use and the scarcity of sources. LNG has always been the preferred explosive but is now difficult to obtain in the United States. The last plant in the U.S, was destroyed in 1989 by explosion and fire.
Fracking has Virtually Replaced Shooting the Well
Explosions in oil or gas wells always carried an element of danger to life and the environment. Eventually new techniques replaced most well-shooting, although it is still practiced by small, independent operators — some not far from the first well-shooting operation in western Pennsylvania.
The introduction of acid into wells met with some success in the 1930’s. That process has generally morphed into the modern, widely used practice of hydraulic fracking. Fracking is highly touted by the industry as safe to the environment and capable of greatly enhancing oil production especially from oil deposits where oil-bearing rock does not allow oil to pool or flow very well.
The danger of explosives is avoided by pumping water into deep wells under great pressure thereby forcing tiny cracks to open. Sand or a similar material is forced into the cracks to keep them from closing when pressure is released. Fracking has been used extensively for over sixty years and has successfully enhanced the production of oil. Some oil fields — like the Bakken — depend on fracking in order to be productive.
Shooting the well was once a widespread practice in oil production. Stories about well shooting add drama of the old days of drilling. But the practice is inherently dangerous and resulted in uncounted numbers of deaths and injuries. Still practiced by a few independent owners, shooting the well has largely been replaced by hydraulic fracking.
Sources:
- "Well Shooting Overview," logwell.com. (Accessed: October 10, 2011)
- "The Shooting Stars of the Drake Well," pa.gov. (Accessed: October 10, 2011)
Harvey Craft - I am a retired educator with diverse experience. I read anything science, education, and history. I write to share what I learn.
