LIGHTING SYSTEM OF THE ORCUTT OIL FIELDS.
By CLEM A. COPELAND.
Consulting Engineer, Los Angeles, Cal.
The large and deep-lying oil-sand lakes and subterranean gas works, commencing with the southern rim of the Santa Maria Valley and stretching away for a dozen miles southward toward Santa Barbara, contribute some 14,600,000 barrels of high gravity refining and fuel oil to California’s annual production of 40,000,000 barrels.
WEST FRAME OF 2600 FT. SPAN. POWER-HOUSE IN BACKGROUND.
With the assistance of two eight-inch pipe lines 32 miles to Port Harford, a similar line 48 miles across the Isthmus of Panama, and a goodly fleet of vessels, the Union Oil Company scatters this oil from Seattle to San Diego, and from New York to Japan. Chile also has a share for the working of its nitre beds and its railways.
The little towns of Santa Maria and Orcutt receive with open pipes a tithe of the gas which nature has here stored, and which would otherwise escape the many safety valves, while the steam rig engines have often been run with direct gas pressure from the wells.
This land of gas and gushers is difficult of control, and is always ready to pop off at from 100 to 400 pounds pressure through the many 3,000-foot tubes which puncture its depths. When a new gusher is brought in, it sprays the adjacent hills with a glistening shadow of petroleum and is no respecter of persons or property. One new and frisky fury flowed 12,000 barrels per day, and delivered 4,000,000 cubic feet of gas every 24 hours for four months, gradually dropping to a production of 7,000 barrels, which it maintained for nearly a year, finally diminishing to 3,500, and now, after three and a third years, is still producing 250 barrels per day, having delivered during this time 3,000,000 barrels of petroleum, and enough gas to last San Francisco for three years. This is, with perhaps one exception, the most remarkable well in the history of oil industry, and is widely known as “Hartwell No. 1.”
The district contains two groups of wells, one contiguous to Orcutt, and the other near Lompoc. Danger from fire due to the excessive gas pressure of the Orcutt fields is exceedingly great, as evidenced by the burning of four “rigs” in the first two years of its history, during which time there were fifteen wells brought into production. The cost of these “rigs” exceeded the cost of the lighting plant, which is described in these notes, and no fires have since occurred in the sixty wells now producing. The advisability of the plant is therefore quite patent.
MAP OF ORCUTT OIL FIELDS ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM.
The lighting system employed in the Orcutt oil fields is perhaps only interesting in illustrating how the methods employed in large undertakings may be used to great advantage in the smaller enterprises to effect a large saving and to simplify conventional methods. The smaller undertakings often afford opportunities of saving a larger percentage in cost and operation in connection with the larger ones. In the present instance, an economy of $9,000 was made in a system which would have cost $30,000 if constructed along conventional lines.
As may be seen from some of the views in these notes, the country covered by the system is very hilly and stony, hard sandstone being everywhere prominent. Trees would have interfered considerably over perhaps a third of the line with ordinary construction, and being oak, it would have cost heavily to eliminate them. Although the winters in this section are very bleak and windy, no snow has ever fallen. The attached map shows the wells, which are unusually far apart and scattered over some 5,000 acres of land.
FRAME BETWEEN 1500 AND 1600 FT. SPAN.
Long span work, employing copper cables, and using the oil-well derricks for support, seemed well to meet these and all other conditions in the most economical fashion. The adoption of long span work effected a large saving in the length of line and wire needed to cover the territory, since air-line routes could be covered in all cases across country, without any care being taken to lay out a pole line which would conform to some general inflexible plan. Moreover, much vertical distance was saved in not having to follow the contour of the country. Incidentally the long span work makes the installation of new pieces of line very easy and simple, and no large amount of material need be kept on hand for expansion purposes.
Where conditions are rapidly changing, as in the present instance, existing lines having to be moved because of the abandonment of wells or re-arrangement as new wells come in amongst the old ones, are easily changed, with but little loss of labor and material. The derricks, 80 feet in height, make ideal supports for long-span construction, and steel frames, heavy enough for the largest size of wire, eventually were made of “scrap” pipe set in cement. Where the derricks were not available, redwood “dead-men” were also used between derricks which were near together, but on opposite sides of rises or hills. The present system of distribution is 72,550 feet, or 13.75 miles, in length, and consists of 70 derricks, 9 frames, and 10 “dead-men,” making the average span about 800 feet. The seven-strand bare copper cables used in this work were furnished under rigid specifications previously described in the “Journal,” by the Standard Underground Cable Company. One will observe from the map and photos that there are many spans 1,500 feet in length, one span of 2,000 feet between derricks and one 2,600 feet from one frame to another. The sags allowed correspond to 60 feet on a 2,000-foot span, and the cables were very small for such work, No. 6 being used for the greatest lengths, which occurs as a neutral on the longest spans. The sizes used are Nos. 2, 4, and 6.
As the cables were suspended high above the ground and good construction was relied upon for safety from breakage, they were used without insulation, and a large saving was thus effected. “Goose-egg” strain insulators, first designed by the writer several years ago, are used to insulate the cables. Copper sleeves were used to splice the cables and to loop them to the insulators.
It is of considerable interest to observe the action of these light cables in a high wind, for even in the most gusty storms there is no whipping action. In the longer spans, the cables hang absolutely parallel and sway in a most deliberate manner from 12 to 25 feet out of line.
HARTWELL NO. ONE.
DETAIL OF DERRICK CONSTRUCTION.
Inasmuch as fuel economy is of little importance, since either waste gas or oil can be used, a large drop in the distributing system is permissible, and a radius of three or four miles from the power-house can be economically attained by the use of 210 to 250 volt lamps on the three-wire direct-current system. At present the maximum distance is 255 miles, and four voltages of lamps are employed. The derricks are wired on the two-wire system with No. 14 T. B. W. P. medium, hard-drawn wire, care being taken to keep all wires on the outside of derrick house wherever possible. Although the wires and insulators have been in some cases completely sprayed and saturated with oil from the gushers, no troubles of insulation have been experienced.
At the time this work was started, there was a small plant on the Pinal Oil Company’s property near by, where keyed sockets were used until one of the drillers was injured by a gas explosion caused by turning off one of the lights. This, of course, suggested the care necessary to guard against such accidents. In the present installation, double-pole fuses were constructed for each derrick and tank house, by using two weatherproof sockets and Edison plug fuses, all inclosed in a gauze cylinder like a Davy mine lamp. Switches for tank house and derricks were also inclosed in gauze. In wiring the derricks, sleeves were used for splicing, so that in the whole system no solder nor torch was used. Specially designed heavy wire lamp guards and portables, with wires inclosed in cotton-covered garden hose, are other features of the derrick wiring. When drilling is commenced, the derrick is wired for eleven lights. Tank houses, some fifteen or twenty in number, are wired with a light over each tank.
POWER-HOUSE.
The power-house is of only passing interest, being designed for reliability and minimum first cost, and with the idea of transplanting it to some new location should future conditions dictate. The view shows two 10×10 Shepherd engines, clutched to either end of a shaft, from which two 45-kilowatt, 250-volt, direct-current Westinghouse generators are belted. In case of accident to one generator, a switch on the switchboard converts the 3-wire to a 2-wire system, using the two outside wires as one, and the neutral as the return conductor. Three 48×14 fire-tube boilers supply steam at 125 pounds pressure. The power-house is in a perennially cool location on a hill crest, so that it could be made small and cozy.
The system has been in uninterrupted and satisfactory operation for two years. The only trouble during the time was caused by one wire of one span breaking, due to an imperfection in splicing. The section has long-continued and severe winds, much rain and cold weather, but two winters have developed no imperfections. Although the lights burn all night, no interruption has been experienced. Reliability is important, since, if the lights failed, there would be a temptation to light candles or lanterns at a critical time.
The system was designed and supervised by Mr. Copeland, of Messrs. Clem. Copeland and F. R. Schanck, consulting engineers for the Union Oil Company. Mr. C. W. Crawley, who is at present electrical superintendent, was foreman of construction.