Mining Petroleum in France and Germany

Abstract

The Pechelbronn Oil FieldThe Pechelbronn oil field is located in the province of Alsace, in the RhineValley, about 30 miles north of Strasbourg. It is approximately 4 miles wideand 12 miles long, extending from the villages of Lobsann on the north toWintershausen and Ohlungen near Haguenau on the south. (See Fig. 1.) Theproductive area includes about 44,000 hectares (107,680 acres). The namePechelbronn signifies "pitchspring" or "pitch-fountain."The first exploratory galleries were driven in from the hillside in 1735;and in 1745 the first official concession was granted by the French governmentand the first pit sunk to a depth of about 30 ft. Extraction by drilled wellswas begun in 1879, supplementing the mining operations, and during the next 10 years 200 wells were drilled to an average depth of 172 m. (568 ft.). Thebringing in of two "gusher" wells, in 1882 and 1888, respectively, wasfollowed by the abandonment of all underground work.Underground mining, with a view to increasing the production of petroleum byrecovering the oil left in the sands after drilling wells, was resumed in 1916.This mining operation started by sinking shaft No. 1 to a depth of 150 m. (495ft.). The underground developments were pushed during 1917 and 1918 and theannual production of the Pechelbronn field was increased to about 50,000 metrictons or 350,000 bbl.On the signing of the Versailles Treaty the province of Alsace, which hadbeen taken by Germany as the result of the war of 1870, was returned to France, and the proprietary rights were taken over by the French Government.Concessions or leases, which embraced all the known oil-bearing territory ofthe field were granted to the present operating company, Mines de Pechelbronn.This company followed both the drilling and the mining methods of the previouscompany.