History

Most people don't think of New York when oil is mentioned, when actually the first recorded discovery of oil in North America was made right here in Allegany county. In 1627 a French missionary was lead to the oil spring by local Seneca Indians. The spring is located in what is now Cuba New York. The Seneca's prized the oil for medicinal proposes. The oil spring in Cuba was not the only discovery of oil in New York before the 1881 boom. In 1832 farmers digging for coal in the town of Freedom noted oil seepage in to the pit. A well drilled in 1857 near the Seneca Oil Spring, two years before Drake's well didn't produce any significant oil. A well drilled in Rushford in 1860 produces little oil yet substantial natural gas. In 1865 "Job Moses No. 1" located in Limestone becomes New York's first successful oil well at 7 barrels per day. A big strike at Rock City (S.W. of Olean) in 1877 marks the start of New York's first major oil field. The "Triangle No. 1" west east of Allentown drilled in 1879 causes the town of Petrolia to spring up.

In 1881 on a geologist advice a investor group drills a well on the Reading Farm in Richburg New York. The well comes in at 70 barrels its first day, this well sparks the oil boom of 1881. With days hundreds of people began to flood into the valley and with in ten months there were between 4500 to 5000 people in Bolivar and 7000 in Richburg. Production that first year reached over 6 million barrels in Allegany county and over 1 million barrels in Cattaraugus county. At one time the village of Richburg employed five policemen and three justices of the peace. The two villages had gambling dens, bordellos, three dozen saloons and one dozen billiard parlors. The first recovery period ran in till the early 1920's. In this time the natural flow of oil slowly tapers off to less than 1 million barrels a year in Allegany county causing some of boom towns to turn into ghost towns.

The 1920's introduce a new technology called water flooding. Water flooding introduces hydrostatic pressure to force more oil from the oil bearing rock strata. This new technology caused a "Secondary recover" in the area. The production increase caused by water flooding peaked in the 1940's. The peak was marked by the production of over 4 million barrels a year in Allegany county and close to 2 million in Cattaraugus county.

The OPEC increase of oil prices in the 70's caused new activity in the New York field using new drilling and production technology to improve production. With the collapse of oil prices in 1986 production in the region went back in to a decline. The New York oil fields await new technology to pump the remaining substantial oil reserves.