Volume 1 Issue 12, May, 2009 of The Pipeline

The Pipeline
Your Conduit for Information about Oil 150
P.O. BOX 128; OIL CITY, PA 16301-0128
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12
May, 2009
ExxonMobil Joins Oil 150
Inside this issue:
by Melissa Mann
ExxonMobil Joins Oil 150
1
Mark’s Remarks
1
Venango Museum
2
Documentary Screening in Erie
3
Conference Photos
Thank You to Donors
4-5
6
Featured Events
June 6 &7, 2009, Barbara Morgan
Harvey Center - Community History
Days. The two-day festival at Venango Campus will feature lectures,
displays, story telling, entertainment,
great food, oil field equipment and
activities for all ages celebrating the
area's rich heritage. Contact Gina
Knox at (814) 676-6591 ext. 1269.
June 10, 2009, Benson Memorial
Library Educational Program on Photography and Local History. A oneday event at Titusville’s Benson Memorial Library featuring a program on
photography and local history. Contact Tara Bartely at (814) 827-2913.
June 20, 2009, Oil 150 Invitational
Rocket Launch. Join in on this highpowered launch, with over 20 rockets. There will also be displays, collectible models, and space-related
magazines dating back to 1957. This
event will be held at the Interstate
Rocket Launch Facility, on Route 208
in Clintonville, Pennsylvania. Contact
Marilyn Black, Oil Region Alliance
(814) 677-3152 ext. 105 or
[email protected].
For More June Events,
Visit Our Calendar at
www.oil150.com
Oil 150 is pleased to announce that ExxonMobil has joined in the celebration of the
150th anniversary of the Drake Well and the concurrent birth of the U.S. petroleum
industry. On April 17, 2009, the ExxonMobil Foundation awarded Oil 150 a grant of
$9,500 for support of the Oil 150 Nationwide Museum Kit Initiative.
The ExxonMobil Foundation’s grant will help Oil 150 provide 250 oil, natural gas,
children’s and science museums with free kits containing media, educational and
promotional materials suitable and appropriate for their respective audiences. As the
Oil 150 story unfolds around the nation, each museum community will be able to display its own unique oil history and tie that story back to its roots in the Pennsylvania
Oil Region by building or enhancing their own exhibits with the components in the museum kits.
The Oil 150 Nationwide Museum Kit Initiative is projected to generate 500,000
initial impressions. A significant portion of that number will visit oil-related heritage
sites around the United States in 2009 and beyond. The program is managed by Ms.
Melissa Mann, Oil 150 Deputy Director. For additional information or clarification,
contact Ms. Mann at
(800) 483-6264, Extension 103, or at
[email protected].
Editor’s Column--Mark’s Remarks
The Marcellus Gas Play and the Short Line Railroad
In the shadow of the Oil 150 Celebration marking the
150th anniversary of
the world’s first commercial oil well struck
near Titusville in
northwestern Pennsylvania, is the Marcellus Natural Gas Play.
Mark Heim The Marcellus Gas
Field stretches from
the south central Appalachians into the
Finger Lakes Region of New York. Rising
natural gas prices and the availability of
the relatively new horizontal drilling and
fracking processes make the Marcellus
Shale Play a very attractive opportunity
for energy providers and consumers
alike.
According to the Marcellus Shale Committee, an independent organization of oil
and gas companies actively engaged in
developing the Marcellus Shale Gas Play,
in a report titled “The Economic Impact of
the Oil and Gas Industry in Pennsylvania,”
the number of new wells in the Commonwealth tripled between 2000 and 2007,
from 1,354 to 4,148. These wells generated $1.2 billion in spending as a result
of drilling activity across the Keystone
State. The economic effect is significant.
In 2007 there were 79,000 active gas
wells in Pennsylvania, third highest in the
nation.
The Marcellus Shale Play not only
benefits energy producers but also service companies. For example, one company benefiting from the active drilling of
the Marcellus Shale in Central Pennsylvania is the Lycoming Valley Railroad.
This short line railroad operates 38 miles
of track in central Pennsylvania’s Lycoming and Clinton Counties.
(Continued Page 4)
PAGE 2
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VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12
Venango Museum: Black Gold or Black Magic?
By Rebecca McElhatten
Steering Committee
Co-Chairs
John E. Peterson, Retired Congressman
Bruce Wells, American Oil & Gas Historical
Society
Lynn Cochran, Franklin Area Chamber of
Commerce
Members
Janet McClintock Aaron, Legacy Family
Carol Baker, Pennsylvania Independent
Petroleum Producers
Brenda Barrett, Bureau Director, PA DCNR
Hon. Ronald Black, Retired Legislator
Dr. William Brice, Petroleum History
Institute
Richard Castonguay, Municipal Leader
Pamela Egbert Forker, Legacy Family
Harvey Golubock, American Refining
Group, Inc.
Mark Heim, News Director, WKQW Radio
PA Representative Scott Hutchinson
Gary Hutchison, Educator and Area
Historian
Barbara Ives, Field Representative, U.S.
Congressman Glenn Thompson
Steve Kosak, Kosak & Associates
Thomas Lopus, Quest Eastern Resource,
on behalf of the Independent Petroleum
Association of America (IPAA)
Lois McElwee, Senior Project Manager and
Oil Historian
Carolee Michener, Venango County
Historical Society
Dr. Christopher Reber, Clarion University
of Pennsylvania
Rhonda Reda, Ohio Oil and Gas Association
Stephen W. Rhoads, Pennsylvania Oil &
Gas Association
J. Mickey Rowley, PA Department of
Community and Economic Development
Roger L. Sigworth, Retired Oil Industry Sales
Dr. Donald B. Smith, Physician
David Waples, National Fuel Gas and
Natural Gas Author
Frank Weltner, Master Mariner
Commissioner Troy Wood, Venango County,
Pennsylvania
Larry D. Woodfork, West Virginia Geologist
PA Senator Mary Jo Sanford White
Barbara Zolli, Drake Well Museum
Newsletter
Editor-in-Chief - Mark Heim
Student Editor - Rebecca McElhatten
The Venango Museum of Art, Science & Industry in Oil City, Pennsylvania
currently asks an important question of all its visitors: Is oil black gold or black
magic? The arguments are strong for both sides of the debate, as the museum
displays through its eleven exhibits.
The museum building is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built
in 1905 in the Beaux Arts style and originally served as the Oil City Post Office.
This stone building houses artifacts related to Venango County and its residents.
The Venango Museum strives to provide an educational and cultural experience
for all visitors.
The Wurlitzer Organ of
1928 is the pride of the Venango Museum. It has been
restored to work properly.
The organ came from the
Latonia Theatre in Oil City
where it was used to play
music during silent films. The
museum staff can turn on
the organ for each visitor
who passes through the museum. As soon as the staff
presses a button, the organ
begins to play a delightful
melody, which is joined by mechanically-played instruments.
“Modern Alchemy” shows the uses of a barrel of oil. The wall-size pie chart
shows that 47% of a barrel of oil is used to make gasoline. Another 27% is used
to make diesel fuel and heating oil. The remainder is used in asphalt, plastics,
and jet fuel.
To understand the significance of this, the visitor moves on to the “Global Connections” display. Oil connects countries through economics and ecology. The
countries of the world must work together to protect the global environment.
Plastics, the auto industry, suburban living, and many common materials come
from oil. “Asphalt Nation” has a hands-on wall that shows the differences between city living and suburban living. The material world uses oil to make many
common materials. The museum utilizes another hands-on activity to show that
materials like Styrofoam, nylon, and even bubble gum contain the products of oil.
Oil is also a critical element of many wonders in healthcare and space exploration. Synthetic hip and knee parts, prosthetic heart valves, and artificial eyes are
all made of plastics that use oil. Space suits, as well as divers’ neoprene suits,
use materials made from oil. Without oil, we would not have knee replacements
or space travel.
In 2009, the museum is hosting an exhibit of Dr. Richard Dunlap’s photography. Overall, the photographs depicti how the oil region currently looks. Eighteen
of these photographs are framed, showing how the oil industry blends with and
clashes with nature.
In the heart of the oil region, the Venango Museum of Art, Science & Industry
explores this question through artifacts, replicas, and historical accounts. The
museum is open Tuesday through Sunday and tour guides are available. Visit
www.oilregion.org for more information or call the museum at (814) 676-2007.
is an educational non-partisan celebration administered by the Oil
Region Alliance of Business, Industry & Tourism (ORA). ORA is classified by the Internal
Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. ORA is registered with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations. ORA also administers the Oil Region
National Heritage Area, designated by Congress in 2004.
VO L UM E 1 , I S S UE 1 2
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PAGE 3
"The Valley that Changed the World" to Be Shown at Tom Ridge Environmental Center
by Will Wingo
The Tom Ridge Environmental
Center, Presque Isle State Park, Erie,
Pennsylvania will host a screening of
The Valley that Changed the World on
Thursday, June 25, 2009. The production will be presented on the "Big Green
Screen" with a reception beginning at
6:30 pm and the film starting at 7:00
pm. The reception and screening are
sponsored by the Great Lakes Region
of the Pennsylvania Tourism Office and
by the Oil Region Alliance.
The Tom Ridge Environmental Center is located at the entrance to
Presque Isle State Park at 301 Peninsula Drive. The reception and screening
are free and open to the public. Preregistration is required and can be
made by calling the Big Green Screen
at 814-838-4123. Seating is limited to
175. Call early to insure seating.
The Valley that Changed the World
is a 2009 co-production of WQED Pittsburgh and the Oil Region Alliance of
Business, Industry and Tourism. The
57 minute film chronicles the development of the circumstances that led to
the drilling of the
first successful
commercial oil well
by Edwin Drake in
August, 1859, the
subsequent "oil
boom" in northwest Pennsylvania
and the impact of
the discovery on
the world through
modern times.
The program will give you insights
into the petroleum industry that you
may have not realized-- how kerosene
was the initial high demand product of
petroleum and what John Wilkes
Booth's relationship was to the oil
boom.
Randy Seitz, President of the ORA
said: "This production is a "must see"
for anyone interested in the historical
connection that northwest Pennsylvania has to the most exciting 150
years of civilization."
For more information, contact Will
Wingo, Oil 150 Director, at (814) 6773152 or Holly Best, Assistant Park
Manager at Presque Isle State Park, at
(814) 833-7424.
Now Available!
“The Valley that Changed the World”
Oil 150 Welcomes
New Student Intern
by Melissa Mann
In May 2009,
Oil 150 welcomes
Oil City native
Rebecca McElhatten as Student
Editor. She will
assist the Oil 150
team through the
end of July 2009.
A senior at
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, McElhatten is working toward a
bachelor of arts degree in English with an
emphasis on writing. During her 200-hour
internship, she will work on a number of
writing projects, including educational materials to be included in the Oil 150 Nationwide Museum Kit Initiative and in the Oil
150 Nationwide Poster Initiative, layout
and editorial work on the monthly newsletter, news releases to area media, and historical markers for oil pioneers outside
Pennsylvania.
DVDs of the new 57-minute WQED PBS documentary
highlighting the heritage of the oil industry are
now available for $19.95.
Visit www.oil150.com or one of Oil 150’s regional sales locations to
purchase the DVD and other commemorative products, apparel,
fine oil history prints, oil history books and much more.
PAGE 4
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VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12
Oil 150 and Oil Region Alliance Host Conferences
Between April 30 and May 16, 2009, the Oil Region Alliance and Oil 150 hosted four conferences in the Oil Region National
Heritage Area, including the 2009 Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association Conference, the 10th Annual Preserving Victorian
Collections & Architecture Conference, the West Penn Energy Association ADDC Region I Field Trip, and the Petroleum History
Institute’s 2009 Symposium and Field Trips. The following images highlight some of the events conference attendees enjoyed.
Left: ORA Project Manager Mike Henderson, pictured here at
Freedom Falls in Rockland, led a full-day clinic on photographing waterfalls and water for Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association members. Below (l to r): Darla Guyer, Thelma
Clark, Betty Dietz, and Connie Rosenberry pose in front of the
Caboose Motel at Titusville’s Perry Street Station, one of the
stops on the full-day POWA Spouses Tour.
(Photos by Kim Harris)
Left: Catherine M. V.
Thuro, an expert in the
field of kerosene lighting, inspects a lamp
during her featured talk
at the 10th Annual Preserving Victorian Collections & Architecture
Conference.
Right: Saeed Dubas
speaks about his Victorian home in Titusville,
PA. Mr. and Mrs. Dubas
received the 2009
Historic Preservation
Award for Restoration at
the Historic Preservation Awards ceremony
held on May 9, 2009.
(Photos by
Marilyn Black)
(Continued from Page 1) Mark’s Remarks: Shortline Railroad
It is a part of the North Shore Railroad System and runs west from Muncy in Lycoming County to Avis in Clinton County, serving Montoursville, Williamsport, Newberry, Linden and Jersey Shore - all located in Lycoming County.
With regard to the Marcellus Shale Gas Play, the Lycoming Valley Railroad transports gas drilling supplies from warehouse
to wellhead. A typical well requires three railcar loads of frack sand. Drillers break the rock apart with high pressure water
down to depths of 10,000 feet. The fractures are kept open with sand, allowing the gas to escape after the water pressure is
removed. Most of the sand comes from the Midwestern states and New Jersey to Williamsport on the Lycoming Valley
Railroad.
The Lycoming Valley Railroad also carries pipe in support of Marcellus Shale drilling operations. Transmission pipe is
shipped into Williamsport from Birmingham, Alabama and from Youngstown, Ohio. The pipe comes loaded in specialized, flat
cars. These pipe sections measure forty feet long and are loaded in two stacks per flat car, twenty sections of pipe depending
on the diameter, ranging from 24 to 48 inches. A typical twenty-car load will carry as much as 16,000 linear feet of pipe.
PAGE 5
T HE PI PE LI N E
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12
More 2009 Conference Photos
Above Left: Oil historian Neil McElwee leads a bus tour of the Oil
Region National Heritage Area during the
West Penn Energy Association ADDC Region I Field Trip on May 15, 2009. The
field trip included stops at Drake Well Museum and Park, Pithole, and Petroleum
Centre and Rynd Farm in Oil Creek State
Park.
Above Right: Attendees of the West Penn
Energy Association ADDC Region I Field
Trip take time out for lunch at the Blue Canoe in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The brewery, which opened in 2008, serves a variety
of beers brewed on the premises as well as
a full kitchen menu. For more information,
visit www.thebluecanoebrewery.com.
(Photos by Natalie McClelland)
Above: Members of the Petroleum History Institute visit McClintock Well #1, the world’s oldest
continuously producing oil well. While at the
well, PHI bottled its own souvenir oil from that
day’s production.
(Photo by Rasoul Sorkhabi)
Right: Dr. Bill Brice (left) introduces Gregg E.
Fairbrothers (right), Professor of Business Administration Tuck School of Business, Director
of the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, and
Chair or the Dartmouth Regional Technology
Center at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Mr. Fairbrothers gave the keynote address entitled “George Bissell: A case study in
disruptive entrepreneurship and his entrepreneurial contributions to the betterment of society” during the PHI International Symposium.
(Photo by Mike Henderson)
PAGE 6
T HE PI PE LI N E
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 12
Thank You, Oil 150 Donors!
American Refining Group
U.S. Department of Energy
Baker Hughes Foundation
Joy Mining Machinery
County of Crawford, PA
County of Venango, PA
Universal Well Services, Inc.
Henry B. Suhr, Jr. and Beverly L. Suhr
Barr’s Insurance and James Hawkins
Edward Jones Investments
PA Department of Community and
Economic Development
Pennsylvania Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources
Pennsylvania Joint Legislative Air and
Water Pollution Control and
Conservation Committee
Anonymous
Betty Squire
Carolee Michener
Central Electric Cooperative
Pennsylvania Humanities Council
Dan and Darlene Twombly
Darl and Marilyn Black
Gary Hutchison
Scott and Mary Beth Hutchinson
Joanne Wolfe
Quentin and Louise Wood
Oil Region Alliance
Pennsylvania Historical and
Museum Commission
Timothy Brooks, D.P.M.
Clarion University Foundation
Elizabeth S. Black Charitable Trust
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Associates - Dr. Donald Smith, Dr. Robert
Woods and Dr. John Karian
Frank and Phyllis Weltner
National Park Service
Armstrong Cable
Janet McClintock Aaron
Appalachian Regional Commission
Staff
William Wingo, Director
Melissa Mann, Deputy Director
Amy Nurss, Development Specialist
Rebecca McElhatten, Student Editor
www.oil150.com
Linn Energy, LLC
National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp.
Petroleum History Institute
Kapp Alloy and Wire, Inc.
Oil Creek Railway Historical Society, Inc.
Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association
Philo and Sarah Blaisdell Foundation
American Oil and Gas Historical Society
William and Heather Brice
Larry Woodfork
Moody and Associates
Neil and Lois McElwee
Ronald and Patricia Black
Ohio Oil and Gas Association’s
Energy Education Program
PA CareerLink
Edith Justus Charitable Trust
Ken and Joan Hanson
OMG Americas, Inc.
Independent Oil & Gas Association
of Pennsylvania
Dr. & Mrs. Arthur William
Phillips Charitable Trust
National Fuel Gas Company Foundation
Pennsylvania General
Energy Company, LLC
Association of Desk and Derrick
Clubs Foundation
President Township, Venango County
International Oil Scouts Association
City of Oil City
Scrubgrass Township,
Venango County
New York State Oil
Producers Association, Inc.
Richard King Mellon Foundation
American Association of Professional
Landmen Educational Foundation, Inc.
National Petrochemical and
Refiners Association
Cranberry Township, Venango County
Franklin Bronze Plaques
Randy Seitz, President/COO
Marilyn Black, Vice-President for
Heritage Development
217 Elm Street
P.O. Box 128
Oil City, PA 16301-0128
814-677-3152
www.oilregion.org
Catalyst Energy, Inc.
Lambert and Martineau
Kriebel Production Company
Samuel Pratt, Jr.
American Petroleum Institute
Ron and Alice Shoup
ExxonMobil Foundation
Dennis Beggs
Rod Griffin
Sonja Hawkins
Dave Pascale
Dr. Chris Reber
Thomas Surman
Warren Thomas
Barbara Zolli
John Cramer
Steve Hanna
Jim Hawkins
Betsy and David Kellner
Mike and Christine Klapec
Susan Smith
Mike Adams
Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Adams
Jack and Pam Crawford
George and Sharon Dorogy
Pamela Forker
Ron Gustafson
Bruce and Libby Jenkins
Daniel Leech
Rainey Linn
Bob McFate
Lois Minnigh
Mark and Carol Prokay
Steve and Emmy Prokay
Patty Reagle
Matt and Sara Sampson
Dave and Sue Straub
George Thompson
Susan Williams
Ralph W. Baird
Baird Petrophysical International
Jack W. Corn
This newsletter is copyrighted to OIL 150
at the Oil Region Alliance of Business,
Industry & Tourism. Brief excerpts may
be quoted so long as source is acknowledged. For longer excerpts, contact project staff. Articles and photos may be
submitted for future editions. Authors
and photographers are recognized but
not compensated. Deadline for each
edition is the 15th of the preceding
month. The Pipeline is distributed electronically via www.oil150.com. Letters to
the Editor may be addressed to Editor, Oil
150, P.O. Box 128, Oil City, PA
16301-0128.