106-545: The Big Inch and Little Big Inch , collectively known as the Inch pipelines , are petroleum pipelines extending from Texas to New Jersey , built between 1942 and 1944 as emergency war measures in the United States. Before World War II , petroleum products were transported from the oil fields of Texas to the north-eastern states by sea by oil tankers . After the U.S. entered the war on 1 January 1942, this vital link
212-613: A bid to build one in spring 1941, but the plan failed, due to concerns over the amount of steel that would be required for such a project. In May 1941, Ickes was appointed as the Petroleum Coordinator for National Defense, and in December 1942 became the administrator of the Petroleum Administration for War. New laws were passed to enable the building of pipelines necessary for the war effort, including
318-404: A day, and the old oil pumps were retained for reuse in a future crisis. Steel valves replaced the older, less reliable cast iron designs. Demand continued to increase, requiring additional compressor capability, and by January 1949 the pipelines were moving 508,000,000 cubic feet (14,400,000 m) a day. The supply route undermined the local markets for manufactured gas, and the major cities of
424-512: A day, the Little Big Inch 239,844 barrels of gasoline; the lines were among the largest industrial consumers of electricity in the US, requiring 3.89 million kilowatt hours a day to pump the oil along the pipes. By the end of the war, there was considerable debate over the future of the pipelines. The major oil companies, such as Standard Oil, campaigned for the conversion of the pipelines for
530-520: A fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. Young found that by slow distillation he could obtain several useful liquids from it, one of which he named "paraffine oil" because at low temperatures it congealed into a substance resembling paraffin wax. The production of these oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated October 17, 1850. In 1850, Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under
636-558: A layer of coal tar enamel, and then hot coal tar coating, before being wrapped in asbestos felt. Finally the pipeline was lowered into position, taking care not to damage the ends of the pipes; the larger pipes were so heavy that they required a D-8 caterpillar tractor equipped with counter-weights to lift them. The trench was then back-filled, completing the process. The Big Inch pipeline had to pass under 33 rivers and 200 creeks and lakes, as well as under 289 railroad and 626 highway intersections. Specially lined tunnels were bored to lay
742-512: A much shallower level. The Athabasca oil sands are one example of this. An alternative mechanism to the one described above was proposed by Russian scientists in the mid-1850s, the hypothesis of abiogenic petroleum origin (petroleum formed by inorganic means), but this is contradicted by geological and geochemical evidence. Abiogenic sources of oil have been found, but never in commercially profitable amounts. "The controversy isn't over whether abiogenic oil reserves exist," said Larry Nation of
848-694: A national emergency. Ten bids were received and on February 8, 1947, the Texas East Transmission Corporation (TETCO) was declared successful, after the intervention of the Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson who was close to the Browns. Its bid of $ 143,127,000 would make the disposal the largest sale of war-surplus property to the private sector following World War II. TETCO was the brainchild of corporate lawyers Charles Francis and James Elkins , who convinced
954-476: A process known as catagenesis . Formation of petroleum occurs from hydrocarbon pyrolysis in a variety of mainly endothermic reactions at high temperatures or pressures, or both. These phases are described in detail below. In the absence of plentiful oxygen, aerobic bacteria were prevented from decaying the organic matter after it was buried under a layer of sediment or water. However, anaerobic bacteria were able to reduce sulfates and nitrates among
1060-697: A set of parallel reactions, and oil eventually breaks down to natural gas by another set of reactions. The latter set is regularly used in petrochemical plants and oil refineries . United States Secretary of the Interior The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior . The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for
1166-665: A significant amount of petroleum while drilling for lignite in Wietze , Germany. Wietze later provided about 80% of German consumption in the Wilhelminian Era. The production stopped in 1963, but Wietze has hosted a Petroleum Museum since 1970. Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century. Both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze,
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#17327945627501272-574: A source of internal and inter-state conflict, leading to both state-led wars and other resource conflicts . Production of petroleum is estimated to reach peak oil before 2035 as global economies lower dependencies on petroleum as part of climate change mitigation and a transition towards renewable energy and electrification . The word petroleum comes from Medieval Latin petroleum (literally 'rock oil'), which comes from Latin petra 'rock' (from Greek pétra πέτρα ) and oleum 'oil' (from Greek élaion ἔλαιον ). The origin of
1378-431: A suspiciously round number. TETCO believed it could afford to make this offer because it intended to reuse the electric motors in the oil pumping mechanisms for moving the natural gas; it also believed that the price of gas would rise considerably in the post-war markets. After winning the bidding, TETCO raised the money to pay the government through a combination of bonds and share issues. A further government enquiry
1484-411: A variety of liquid, gaseous, and solid components. Lighter hydrocarbons are the gases methane , ethane , propane and butane . Otherwise, the bulk of the liquid and solids are largely heavier organic compounds, often hydrocarbons (C and H only). The proportion of light hydrocarbons in the petroleum mixture varies among oil fields . An oil well produces predominantly crude oil. Because the pressure
1590-526: A visit to Fort Duquesne in 1750. Early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. Merkwiller-Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, notably for medical purposes. There
1696-554: A year before Drake's Pennsylvania operation and could be argued to be the first commercial oil well in North America. The discovery at Oil Springs touched off an oil boom which brought hundreds of speculators and workers to the area. Advances in drilling continued into 1862 when local driller Shaw reached a depth of 62 metres using the spring-pole drilling method. On January 16, 1862, after an explosion of natural gas , Canada's first oil gusher came into production, shooting into
1802-416: Is Blood . The National Tube Company of Lorain, Ohio produced from 137,500 tons of steel the pipe for the 550-mile section between Long View and Norris City in 4 month, the last shipment left on November 10, 1942, all together a total 4,600 gondola carloads. A contract for the first 360 miles for the section between Illinois and Pennsylvania was let to the same company on October 30. The Big Inch pipeline
1908-442: Is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture. It consists mainly of hydrocarbons , and is found in geological formations . The term petroleum refers both to naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil, as well as to petroleum products that consist of refined crude oil. Conventional reserves of petroleum are primarily recovered by drilling , which is done after a study of the relevant structural geology , analysis of
2014-491: Is called diagenesis , a word that means a transformation of materials by dissolution and recombination of their constituents. Kerogen formation continued to a depth of about 1 km from the Earth's surface where temperatures may reach around 50 °C . Kerogen formation represents a halfway point between organic matter and fossil fuels : kerogen can be exposed to oxygen, oxidize and thus be lost, or it could be buried deeper inside
2120-726: Is considered a sticky, black, tar-like form of crude oil which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow. Venezuela also has large amounts of oil in the Orinoco oil sands , although the hydrocarbons trapped in them are more fluid than in Canada and are usually called extra heavy oil . These oil sands resources are called unconventional oil to distinguish them from oil which can be extracted using traditional oil well methods. Between them, Canada and Venezuela contain an estimated 3.6 trillion barrels (570 × 10 ^ m ) of bitumen and extra-heavy oil, about twice
2226-473: Is lower at the surface than underground, some of the gas will come out of solution and be recovered (or burned) as associated gas or solution gas . A gas well produces predominantly natural gas . However, because the underground temperature is higher than at the surface, the gas may contain heavier hydrocarbons such as pentane, hexane , and heptane (" natural-gas condensate ", often shortened to condensate. ) Condensate resembles gasoline in appearance and
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#17327945627502332-756: Is now called the Drake Well in Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania .There also was a company associated with it, and it sparked a major oil drilling boom. The first commercial oil well in Canada became operational in 1858 at Oil Springs, Ontario (then Canada West ). Businessman James Miller Williams dug several wells between 1855 and 1858 before discovering a rich reserve of oil four metres below ground. Williams extracted 1.5 million litres of crude oil by 1860, refining much of it into kerosene lamp oil. Williams's well became commercially viable
2438-451: Is similar in composition to some volatile light crude oils . The hydrocarbons in crude oil are mostly alkanes , cycloalkanes and various aromatic hydrocarbons , while the other organic compounds contain nitrogen , oxygen , and sulfur , and traces of metals such as iron, nickel, copper and vanadium . Many oil reservoirs contain live bacteria. The exact molecular composition of crude oil varies widely from formation to formation but
2544-473: Is used in manufacturing a vast variety of materials essential for modern life, and it is estimated that the world consumes about 100 million barrels (16 million cubic metres ) each day. Petroleum production played a key role in industrialization and economic development. Some countries, known as petrostates , gained significant economic and international power over their control of oil production and trade. Petroleum exploitation can be damaging to
2650-674: The Earth's crust and be subjected to conditions which allow it to slowly transform into fossil fuels like petroleum. The latter happened through catagenesis in which the reactions were mostly radical rearrangements of kerogen. These reactions took thousands to millions of years and no external reactants were involved. Due to the radical nature of these reactions, kerogen reacted towards two classes of products: those with low H/C ratio ( anthracene or products similar to it) and those with high H/C ratio ( methane or products similar to it); i.e., carbon-rich or hydrogen-rich products. Because catagenesis
2756-490: The Orinoco Belt . While significant volumes of oil are extracted from oil sands, particularly in Canada, logistical and technical hurdles remain, as oil extraction requires large amounts of heat and water, making its net energy content quite low relative to conventional crude oil. Thus, Canada's oil sands are not expected to provide more than a few million barrels per day in the foreseeable future. Petroleum consists of
2862-745: The Soviet Union in total output. In 1973 , Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations imposed an oil embargo against the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and other Western nations which supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. The embargo caused an oil crisis . This was followed by the 1979 oil crisis , which was caused by a drop in oil production in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and caused oil prices to more than double. The two oil price shocks had many short- and long-term effects on global politics and
2968-540: The United States , but is responsible for only one percent of electricity generation. Petroleum's worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals makes it one of the world's most important commodities . The top three oil-producing countries as of 2018 are the United States, Russia , and Saudi Arabia . In 2018, due in part to developments in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling ,
3074-455: The actinomycetales order of bacteria also produced antibiotic compounds (e.g., streptomycin ). Thus the action of anaerobic bacteria ceased at about 10 m below the water or sediment. The mixture at this depth contained fulvic acids, unreacted and partially reacted fats and waxes, slightly modified lignin , resins and other hydrocarbons. As more layers of organic matter settled into the sea or lake bed, intense heat and pressure built up in
3180-517: The president of the United States . The function of the U.S. Department of the Interior is different from that of the interior minister designated in many other countries. As the policies and activities of the Department of the Interior and many of its agencies have a substantial impact in the Western United States , the secretary of the interior has typically come from a western state; only one secretary since 1949, Rogers Morton ,
3286-585: The 12th century. It has also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură. Sophisticated oil pits, 4.5 to 6 metres (15 to 20 ft) deep, were dug by the Seneca people and other Iroquois in Western Pennsylvania as early as 1415–1450. The French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm encountered Seneca using petroleum for ceremonial fires and as a healing lotion during
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3392-503: The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. "The controversy is over how much they contribute to Earth's overall reserves and how much time and effort geologists should devote to seeking them out." Three conditions must be present for oil reservoirs to form: The reactions that produce oil and natural gas are often modeled as first order breakdown reactions, where hydrocarbons are broken down to oil and natural gas by
3498-600: The Big Inch on August 14, 1943, and the first refined product in the Little Big Inch arrived on March 2, 1944. The pipelines were officially dedicated at a ceremony in Rockwood, Pennsylvania , on Friday, March 24, 1944; participants included U.S. Rep. J. Buell Snyder , George A. Wilson (Director of Supply & Transportation of the Petroleum Administration for War), and W. Alton Jones (President of War Emergency Pipelines). The Big Inch carried up to 334,456 barrels of crude oil
3604-572: The DPC directed the engineering project, with much of the work undertaken by Oscar Wolfe and, on the Little Inch pipeline, F. E. Richardson and L. F. Scherer. A meeting of all of the contractors for the build was held at the start of the July to kickstart the project; overall, 82 different companies would take on the pipeline work on a "cost-plus" basis, employing over 16,000 staff. The construction required
3710-455: The Earth's surface. Unusual magma intrusions, however, could have created greater localized heating. Geologists often refer to the temperature range in which oil forms as an "oil window" . Below the minimum temperature oil remains trapped in the form of kerogen. Above the maximum temperature the oil is converted to natural gas through the process of thermal cracking . Sometimes, oil formed at extreme depths may migrate and become trapped at
3816-586: The Soviet Union included the goal to capture the Baku oilfields , as it would provide much-needed oil supplies for the German military which was suffering from blockades. Oil exploration in North America during the early 20th century later led to the U.S. becoming the leading producer by mid-century. As petroleum production in the U.S. peaked during the 1960s, the United States was surpassed by Saudi Arabia and
3922-576: The United States became the world's largest producer. About 80 percent of the world's readily accessible reserves are located in the Middle East , with 62.5 percent coming from the Arab five: Saudi Arabia , United Arab Emirates , Iraq , Qatar , and Kuwait . A large portion of the world's total oil exists as unconventional sources, such as bitumen in Athabasca oil sands and extra heavy oil in
4028-578: The War Emergency Pipelines company, a non-profit corporation backed by a consortium of the largest American oil companies. It was the longest, biggest and heaviest project of its type then undertaken; the Big and Little Big Inch pipelines were 1,254 and 1,475 miles (2,018 and 2,374 kilometres) long respectively, with 35 pumping stations along their routes. The project required 16,000 people and 725,000 short tons (658,000 t) of materials. It
4134-516: The absence of anti-corrosion protective coatings on the original piping. 62 of the original buildings from 1942 and 1943 remain, including pump-houses, offices, employee houses and garages. The best surviving examples of the original buildings are in Pennsylvania. A "Big Inch pipeline" construction playset was produced as a children's toy in 1962 by the Marx company. Petroleum Petroleum
4240-627: The air at a recorded rate of 480 cubic metres (3,000 bbl) per day. By the end of the 19th century the Russian Empire, particularly the Branobel company in Azerbaijan , had taken the lead in production. Access to oil was and still is a major factor in several military conflicts of the 20th century, including World War II , during which oil facilities were a major strategic asset and were extensively bombed . The German invasion of
4346-551: The area around modern Baku , Azerbaijan . These fields were described by the Persian geographer Abu Bakr al-Razi in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil to produce flammable products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain , distillation became available in Western Europe by
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4452-418: The atmosphere. The railroad and coal companies, who saw this as likely to introduce additional competition for coal and coal gas , and therefore lower demand for their goods and services, argued against this move. The smaller oil companies proposed continuing to use the pipelines for oil in order to undermine the transport monopolies of the larger corporations. A government inquiry was undertaken to determine
4558-474: The coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. Chemist James Young in 1847 noticed a natural petroleum seepage in the coal mine at riddings Alfreton , Derbyshire from which he distilled a light thin oil suitable for use as lamp oil, at the same time obtaining a more viscous oil suitable for lubricating machinery. In 1848, Young set up a small business refining crude oil. Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at low heat, in creating
4664-446: The company soared, and the original investors saw the value of their holdings increase 63-fold. TETCO immediately began to convert the pipelines for permanent use as natural gas transmission lines, under the direction of Baxter Goodrich, their chief engineer. 24 compressor stations were constructed along the pipeline with centrifugal compressors , increasing the capacity of the system to 433,000,000 cubic feet (12,300,000 m) of gas
4770-544: The compulsory purchasing of land under the right of eminent domain . Initial planning for the Inch pipelines began on May 15, 1941, when a meeting of Ickes and the oil industry commissioned an aerial survey of the possible route. A preliminary design was ready that September, and a consortium of major oil companies formed a new company, National Defense Pipelines, to build a pipeline along the route. The government Supply Priorities and Allocations Board , however, refused to approve
4876-427: The construction specialists George and Herman Brown , and the fuel engineer E. Holley Poe, that buying the Big and Little Inch pipelines could be a lucrative opportunity. The corporation was established specifically for the purposes of the bid, and came to their bidding figure by estimating that the likely competition would bid at $ 130 million; their own figure exceeded this by 10 percent, and added on $ 127,000 to avoid
4982-456: The construction teams, on account of their unprecedented diameters. The construction project was extensively advertised, as part of the US government's war-time propaganda effort. Newsreels ran clips such as Pipeline Goes Through! and Pipe Dream Comes True-Oil! , and short-films were made about the construction work, including Pipeline . The pipelines also appeared in the RKO Pathé film Oil
5088-573: The earliest Chinese writings, cites that oil in its raw state, without refining, was first discovered, extracted, and used in China in the first century BCE. In addition, the Chinese were the first to record the use of petroleum as fuel as early as the fourth century BCE. By 347 CE, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China. In the 7th century, petroleum was among the essential ingredients for Greek fire , an incendiary projectile weapon that
5194-450: The eastern sea routes of the country were attacked by German U-boat submarines. United States naval defence was very limited and largely obsolete; between January and April 1942, among other naval losses, 46 oil tankers were sunk and 16 damaged. The problem was made worse as 50 tankers had been sent to help the UK earlier in 1941. Insurers began to refuse to underwrite the remaining vessels and
5300-413: The energy market in the north-east. The Little Big Inch was returned to carry oil in 1957. The pipelines are owned by Spectra Energy Partners and Enterprise Products and remain in use. By the time that the United States entered World War II in 1941, oil was a vital part of military operations around the world. The United States produced 60 percent of the world's crude oil , with the state of Texas in
5406-469: The environment and human health. Extraction , refining and burning of petroleum fuels all release large quantities of greenhouse gases , so petroleum is one of the major contributors to climate change . Other negative environmental effects include direct releases, such as oil spills , as well as air and water pollution at almost all stages of use. These environmental effects have direct and indirect health consequences for humans. Oil has also been
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#17327945627505512-407: The existing fleet of cars was in poor condition. Instead, the United States government began to examine options for the use of pipelines to fulfil the demand for petroleum in the north-east. Transporting petroleum by pipeline from the south-west to the north-east was a potentially attractive option for the government as it would be safe from submarine attack and could operate efficiently regardless of
5618-425: The fact that it happened at relatively low temperatures (when compared to commercial pyrolysis plants) of 60 to several hundred °C. Pyrolysis was possible because of the long reaction times involved. Heat for catagenesis came from the decomposition of radioactive materials of the crust, especially K , Th , U and U . The heat varied with geothermal gradient and was typically 10–30 °C per km of depth from
5724-515: The field working. The schedule called for 5 miles (8.0 km) of the Big Inch pipeline to be laid each day. But soon men were laying as much as 9 miles (14 km) a day. In all, roughly 7,000,000 cubic yards (5,400,000 m) of material were excavated. Oil began flowing through the Big Inch Line between Texas and Illinois on New Year's Eve 1942. Work on the Little Big Inch then began in 1943. The first crude oil arrived at Phoenixville via
5830-432: The future use of the pipelines, and took evidence from the various stakeholders, most of whom presented the case that favored their companies or industry. The inquiry concluded that the pipelines should be sold for continued use in transporting petroleum. An auction for the pipelines was announced in 1946, which was designed to give preference to bidders who intended to use them for moving petroleum. 16 bids were received, with
5936-815: The global economy. They led to sustained reductions in demand as a result of substitution to other fuels, especially coal and nuclear, and improvements in energy efficiency , facilitated by government policies. High oil prices also induced investment in oil production by non-OPEC countries, including Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, the North Sea offshore fields of the United Kingdom and Norway, the Cantarell offshore field of Mexico, and oil sands in Canada. About 90 percent of vehicular fuel needs are met by oil. Petroleum also makes up 40 percent of total energy consumption in
6042-420: The government to acquire permission to build the pipeline across 7,500 parcels of land; of these, the right of eminent domain had to be exercised in 300 cases. Major Jubel Parten, a director in the Petroleum Administration for War, considered the Inch pipelines to be part of “the most amazing Government-industry cooperation ever achieved”. The pipelines were soon given the names "Big Inch" and "Little Big Inch" by
6148-408: The heavier end of the range, paraffin wax is an alkane with approximately 25 carbon atoms, while asphalt has 35 and up, although these are usually cracked in modern refineries into more valuable products. The lightest fraction, the so-called petroleum gases are subjected to diverse processing depending on cost. These gases are either flared off , sold as liquefied petroleum gas , or used to power
6254-430: The highest cash bidders being companies hoping to use the pipelines for natural gas. Assessing the different bids proved difficult and the discussions became enmeshed in national politics, with companies seeking support from various Washington politicians. Meanwhile, a threatened national coal strike raised concerns over the availability of natural gas, strengthening the arguments of the natural gas lobby . A fresh inquiry
6360-658: The invention of the modern kerosene lamp (1853), the introduction of the first modern street lamp in Europe (1853), and the construction of the world's first modern oil "mine" (1854). at Bóbrka , near Krosno (still operational as of 2020). The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America and around the world quickly grew. The first oil well in the Americas was drilled in 1859 by Edwin Drake at what
6466-446: The large number of co-eluted hydrocarbons within oil, many cannot be resolved by traditional gas chromatography. This unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of hydrocarbons is particularly apparent when analysing weathered oils and extracts from tissues of organisms exposed to oil. Crude oil varies greatly in appearance depending on its composition. It is usually black or dark brown (although it may be yellowish, reddish, or even greenish). In
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#17327945627506572-411: The lower regions. As a consequence, compounds of this mixture began to combine in poorly understood ways to kerogen . Combination happened in a similar fashion as phenol and formaldehyde molecules react to urea-formaldehyde resins, but kerogen formation occurred in a more complex manner due to a bigger variety of reactants. The total process of kerogen formation from the beginning of anaerobic decay
6678-785: The management and conservation of most federal land along with natural resources , leading such agencies as the Bureau of Land Management , the United States Geological Survey , Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service . The secretary also serves on and appoints the private citizens on the National Park Foundation Board. The secretary is a member of the United States Cabinet and reports to
6784-899: The matter to H 2 S and N 2 respectively by using the matter as a source for other reactants. Due to such anaerobic bacteria, at first, this matter began to break apart mostly via hydrolysis : polysaccharides and proteins were hydrolyzed to simple sugars and amino acids respectively. These were further anaerobically oxidized at an accelerated rate by the enzymes of the bacteria: e.g., amino acids went through oxidative deamination to imino acids , which in turn reacted further to ammonia and α-keto acids . Monosaccharides in turn ultimately decayed to CO 2 and methane . The anaerobic decay products of amino acids, monosaccharides, phenols and aldehydes combined into fulvic acids . Fats and waxes were not extensively hydrolyzed under these mild conditions. Some phenolic compounds produced from previous reactions worked as bactericides and
6890-526: The necessary steel, and the consortium's plan was dissolved shortly before the outbreak of war. After the outbreak of fighting, and the consequent deterioration of the sea routes for transporting oil, industry representatives met in March 1942 to produce a new pipeline strategy, called the Tulsa Plan. This included the construction of the Inch pipelines, backed by the slogan "longlines are lifelines", for which
6996-427: The north-east rapidly converted to the use of natural gas; historian David Waples describes how the pipelines contributed to "an extraordinary expansion of natural gas customers and gas company employees after World War II". The Inch pipelines encouraged the development of further long distance pipelines in the US through the 1960s and 1970s. In 1957, the operation of the Little Big Inch, and its ownership south of Ohio,
7102-446: The other served Philadelphia and terminated at Chester Junction, Pennsylvania . The Little Big Inch, a largely parallel 20-inch-diameter (510 mm) line intended for refined products, ran from Beaumont , Texas, to Little Rock, Arkansas, where it joined the path of the Big Inch, making use of the same pumping stations . From there it ran along the same right-of-way as the Big Inch to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The pipeline project
7208-707: The pipe under the roads and railroad lines, and specialist trenches dug to lay the pipelines across on the riverbeds and lakes, weighing down the pipeline to stop it floating to the surface. Around 4 miles (6.4 km) of underwater piping was laid in total. In marshy areas, the soft ground was filled in to provide firm foundations for the pipeline to rest on. The pumping stations for the pipelines were built on parcels of land between 11 acres (4.5 ha) and 44 acres (18 ha) in size; those with storage tanks were between 90 acres (36 ha) and 131 acres (53 ha) big. The plain, utilitarian buildings were initially prefabricated steel constructs, but as supplies grew scarce, wood
7314-399: The pipelines in any way for their new role, and simply pumped the gas through the system under its own pressure, moving 138,000,000 cubic feet (3,900,000 m) of gas a day in this way. A second auction was held, with bids for natural gas given equal weight to those wishing to transfer crude oil, although any natural gas bidder would be obliged to maintain the oil pumping stations for use in
7420-475: The pipelines into position, or a hot-bending method, with the pipe heated up by blow-torches and pulled into place using a jig . A new, specialized piece of equipment for bending pipes, the Cummings bending jig, was invented during the Big Inch build, and used on the construction of the Little Big Inch pipeline. To protect the pipeline from corrosion, its outside was then cleaned by machine, and painted in first
7526-590: The pipelines would be carried out by the War Emergency Pipelines company (WEP), a non-profit corporation backed by a consortium of the largest oil companies in the United States: Atlantic Refining , Cities Service Oil , Consolidated Oil, Gulf Oil , Pan American Petroleum and Transportation , Standard Oil , Tidewater Associated Oil , Shell Oil , Socony-Vacuum Oil , Sun Oil and the Texas Pipe Line Company. The WEP
7632-443: The project, the Big Inch alone requiring 360,700 short tons (327,200 t) of steel. The pipe was laid in trenches 4 feet (1.2 m) deep and 3 feet (0.91 m) wide, dug out by a combination of ditching machines and manual labor. The pipes were then cleaned by pulling a workman through the inside of them with cloths, and welded together, using both the "stovepiping" method and the roll-weld, or "firing line", methods. Stovepiping
7738-556: The proportion of chemical elements varies over fairly narrow limits as follows: Four different types of hydrocarbon appear in crude oil. The relative percentage of each varies from oil to oil, determining the properties of each oil. The alkanes from pentane (C 5 H 12 ) to octane (C 8 H 18 ) are refined into gasoline, the ones from nonane (C 9 H 20 ) to hexadecane (C 16 H 34 ) into diesel fuel , kerosene and jet fuel . Alkanes with more than 16 carbon atoms can be refined into fuel oil and lubricating oil . At
7844-644: The refinery's own burners. During the winter, butane (C 4 H 10 ), is blended into the gasoline pool at high rates, because its high vapour pressure assists with cold starts. The aromatic hydrocarbons are unsaturated hydrocarbons that have one or more benzene rings . They tend to burn with a sooty flame, and many have a sweet aroma. Some are carcinogenic . These different components are separated by fractional distillation at an oil refinery to produce gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, and other hydrocarbon fractions. The components in an oil sample can be determined by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry . Due to
7950-412: The reservoir it is usually found in association with natural gas, which being lighter forms a "gas cap" over the petroleum, and saline water which, being heavier than most forms of crude oil, generally sinks beneath it. Crude oil may also be found in a semi-solid form mixed with sand and water, as in the Athabasca oil sands in Canada, where it is usually referred to as crude bitumen . In Canada, bitumen
8056-518: The same time the world's first, small, oil refinery was opened at Jasło in Poland (then Austria), with a larger one opened at Ploiești in Romania shortly after. Romania (then being a vassal of the Ottoman empire) is the first country in the world to have had its annual crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics: 275 tonnes for 1857. In 1858, Georg Christian Konrad Hunäus found
8162-523: The second half of the 19th century, the term became commonly known for the liquid form of hydrocarbons. Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times. More than 4300 years ago, bitumen was mentioned when the Sumerians used it to make boats. A tablet of the legend of the birth of Sargon of Akkad mentions a basket which was closed by straw and bitumen. More than 4000 years ago, according to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus , asphalt
8268-665: The sedimentary basin , and characterization of the petroleum reservoir . There are also unconventional reserves such as oil sands and oil shale which are recovered by other means such as fracking . Once extracted, oil is refined and separated, most easily by distillation , into innumerable products for direct use or use in manufacturing. Products include fuels such as gasoline (petrol), diesel , kerosene and jet fuel ; asphalt and lubricants ; chemical reagents used to make plastics ; solvents , textiles , refrigerants , paint , synthetic rubber , fertilizers , pesticides , pharmaceuticals , and thousands of others. Petroleum
8374-426: The south-west leading this production, producing more than twice as much crude as any other state. The industry comprised a handful of very large producers and more than 3,500 smaller operators. The north-east coast of the United States depended on these supplies of oil, importing both crude and refined products. Across most of Texas, there had been little interest in building pipelines to transport oil, and petroleum
8480-669: The steel was finally approved by the War Production Board on June 10. Once steel supplies had been agreed, an initial tranche of $ 35 million in funding was provided by the government Reconstruction Finance Corporation , which owned and manage the operation of the pipelines through its subsidiary organizations, the Defense Plant Corporation and the Defense Supplies Corporation. In turn, the actual construction and operation of
8586-408: The term stems from monasteries in southern Italy where it was in use by the end of the first millennium as an alternative for the older term " naphtha ". After that, the term was used in numerous manuscripts and books, such as in the treatise De Natura Fossilium , published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer , also known as Georgius Agricola. After the advent of the oil industry, during
8692-539: The title of E.W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian and E. Meldrum & Co. at Glasgow; their works at Bathgate were completed in 1851 and became the first truly commercial oil-works in the world with the first modern oil refinery. The world's first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz in Austria. His achievements also included the discovery of how to distill kerosene from seep oil,
8798-621: The transfer of natural gas . Engineers contracted to the US Surplus Property Administration proposed using the lines for natural gas, and the Tennessee Gas and Transmission Company conducted a four-month trial. Demand for natural gas was rising rapidly, and it was produced in large quantities in the Texas oilfields, but could not be got to market in the north-east and was otherwise burnt off uselessly into
8904-541: The two decades before the war, but their adoption was not commercially viable. The concept of constructing such a pipeline was first proposed in 1940 by the Secretary of the Interior , Harold Ickes , who argued that "the building of a crude oil pipeline from Texas to the East might not be economically sound; but that in the event of an emergency it might be absolutely necessary". A consortium led by Standard Oil put forward
9010-629: The volume of crude oil reaching the north-east from the Texas Gulf dropped. In response, steps were taken to better protect the tankers from attack, but losses continued to mount until, in April 1942, they were banned by the Navy from operating the north-east sea routes. The government and industry took steps to maximise the use of the railroads, increasing the amount of oil carried on them more than ten-fold, but there were shortages of rail tank cars , and
9116-468: The volume of the world's reserves of conventional oil. Petroleum is a fossil fuel derived from fossilized organic materials , such as zooplankton and algae . Vast amounts of these remains settled to sea or lake bottoms where they were covered in stagnant water (water with no dissolved oxygen ) or sediments such as mud and silt faster than they could decompose aerobically . Approximately 1 m below this sediment, water oxygen concentration
9222-401: The weather. Pipelines had been in use in the industry since 1862, but by the 1930s they were usually only 8 inches (200 mm) wide, able to deliver 20,000 barrels of oil a day; larger pipes could be built, but due to structural weaknesses they could not operate at the regular pressures. Technologies to build high-pressure pipes at sizes larger than 12 inches (300 mm) began to emerge during
9328-634: Was activity in various parts of the world in the mid-19th century. A group directed by Major Alexeyev of the Bakinskii Corps of Mining Engineers hand-drilled a well in the Baku region of Bibi-Heybat in 1846. There were engine-drilled wells in West Virginia in the same year as Drake's well. An early commercial well was hand dug in Poland in 1853, and another in nearby Romania in 1857. At around
9434-451: Was an older method, in which the welder worked his way around two pipes, which remained stationary; the newer roll-weld approach instead rotated the pipes, allowing the welder to remain in one position as he worked, with up to seven pipes being welded together at the same time. Where it was necessary for the pipeline to curve to fit the route, the steel pipes were bent, using either a cold-bending approach, in which tractors would pull and push
9540-474: Was attacked by German submarines in Operation Paukenschlag , threatening both the oil supplies to the north-east and its onward transshipment to Great Britain. The Secretary of the Interior , Harold Ickes , championed the pipeline project as a way of transporting petroleum by the more-secure, interior route. The pipelines were government financed and owned, but were built and operated by
9646-414: Was closed off from external reactants, the resulting composition of the fuel mixture was dependent on the composition of the kerogen via reaction stoichiometry . Three types of kerogen exist: type I (algal), II (liptinic) and III (humic), which were formed mainly from algae , plankton and woody plants (this term includes trees , shrubs and lianas ) respectively. Catagenesis was pyrolytic despite
9752-638: Was complete, it was extended to its terminus at Phoenixville. When the Big Inch was complete, work began on the third phase of the project, the Little Big Inch. The first purchase order, for 137,500 short tons (124,700 t) of 24-inch-diameter pipe, was placed on July 2, 1942. To meet a construction deadline of January 1, 1943, the laying of pipe began on August 3, 1942, near Little Rock. Other pipeline crews began work immediately on segments elsewhere in Arkansas and Texas. By September 10 all eight pipelaying crews, each consisting of between 300 and 400 men, were in
9858-729: Was declared in November, voiding the previous competition and the Inch Lines were transferred to the War Assets Administration on December 2, 1946, for disposal. Pending any final decision on their sale, the lines were leased to the Tennessee Gas Company for use in shipping natural gas as far as Ohio and the Appalachians, but no further east, and only for 12 months. Tennessee Gas did not convert
9964-760: Was led by Burt Hull and W. Alton Jones , both with extensive backgrounds in the industry, with Oscar Wolfe as its chief engineer. The company established its offices in Little Rock , Arkansas . The Inch pipelines comprised two systems, the Big Inch pipeline and the Little Big Inch pipeline. The Big Inch was a 24-inch (610 mm) pipeline for crude oil; it ran from the East Texas Oil Field at Longview , Texas, to Norris City , Illinois , and on to Phoenixville , Pennsylvania, from where it branched into 20-inch-diameter (510 mm) segments. One served New York and terminated at Linden , New Jersey , and
10070-423: Was low, below 0.1 mg/L, and anoxic conditions existed. Temperatures also remained constant. As further layers settled into the sea or lake bed, intense heat and pressure built up in the lower regions. This process caused the organic matter to change, first into a waxy material known as kerogen , found in various oil shales around the world, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons via
10176-446: Was made from sections of seamless 24-inch (61 cm) diameter steel pipe up to 44 feet (13 m) long, 3 ⁄ 8 inch (9.5 mm) thick and 4,200 pounds (1,900 kg) in weight. The Little Big Inch used both 5 ⁄ 16 inch (7.9 mm) thick seamless steel and electric weld pipe, and a small amount of 1 ⁄ 2 inch (13 mm) thick seamless pipe. In total, 21,185 railcar loads of steel piping were laid during
10282-564: Was merged with Duke Power, to form the Duke Energy Corporation; in 2007, the oil pipelines were spun off from Duke Energy, to form part of Spectra Energy Partners. The Inch pipelines are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Along the western parts of the pipelines, around 90 percent of the pipes are the original installation, although in the east large parts have since been replaced, largely due to
10388-567: Was not a resident or native of a state lying west of the Mississippi River . Secretary of the Interior is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule , thus earning a salary of US$ 246,400, as of January 2024. Following Senate confirmation in March 2021, former U.S. representative Deb Haaland was sworn in as the secretary of the interior, the first Native American to hold the position. The line of succession for
10494-434: Was praised as an example of private-public sector cooperation and featured extensively in US government propaganda . After the end of the war there were extended arguments over how the pipelines should be used. In 1947, the Texas East Transmission Corporation purchased the pipelines for $ 143,127,000, the largest post-war disposal of war-surplus property. The corporation converted them to transport natural gas , transforming
10600-416: Was required before the sale was allowed to go through, which was complicated by the reluctance of the state of Pennsylvania to allow the pipelines to be used to pump gas east through its territory. The government of Pennsylvania was influenced by the coal industry, who feared they would lose sales, but it eventually relented and the sale of the pipelines to TETCO was finally completed on November 1. The value of
10706-484: Was the longest, biggest and heaviest of its kind in the world. In total, the Big Inch pipeline was 1,254 miles (2,018 km) long, with 222 miles (357 km) of secondary distribution and feeder lines, and had 28 pumping stations along the route, approximately every 50 miles (80 km). The Little Big Inch was 1,475 miles (2,374 km) long, with 239 miles (385 km) of secondary lines, and had seven unique pumping stations along its southern leg. Charles Cathers of
10812-519: Was transferred from TETCO to the subsidiary Texas Eastern Petroleum Products Corporation (TEPPCO), and converted back to use for petroleum products. TEPPCO was purchased by Enterprise Products in 2010. Around 1961, there was discussion of converting the Big Inch pipeline back to petroleum use, but it continued in use as a gas pipeline. In 1989, TETCO was taken over by the Panhandle Eastern Corporation, and in 1997 this company
10918-468: Was typically moved from the south-west to the north-east coast using a mixture of sea freight and railroad transport. In early 1941, 70,000 barrels of oil were moved on the railroads each day, but this method was expensive, and the bulk of the oil was moved using barges , some with a capacity of up to 15,000 barrels, operating up and down rivers and the Atlantic Coast . With the outbreak of war,
11024-479: Was used by Byzantine Greeks against Arab ships, which were then attacking Constantinople . Crude oil was also distilled by Persian chemists , with clear descriptions given in Arabic handbooks such as those of Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes). The streets of Baghdad were paved with tar , derived from petroleum that became accessible from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in
11130-544: Was used in the construction of the walls and towers of Babylon ; there were oil pits near Ardericca and Babylon, and a pitch spring on Zakynthos . Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus , one of the tributaries of the Euphrates . Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. The use of petroleum in ancient China dates back to more than 2000 years ago. The I Ching , one of
11236-477: Was used instead. As much as 725,000 short tons (658,000 t) of materials was needed for the total project. Work on the Inch pipelines began immediately after the establishment of the WEP on June 26, 1942. They were built in three phases. The first part to be constructed was the Big Inch, its initial leg running to an interim terminal at Norris City, where oil was to be off-loaded to the railroad network. Once this leg
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