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Indiana’s Petroleum Industry Through the Years Adapted from Information by the Indiana Geological and Water Survey Gas and oil development in the state of Indiana officially began in the mid-1800s when early settlers started drilling for salt water. Salt was needed for the preservation of food, so it was critical to Indiana’s early agricultural industry. Shallow wells were drilled across the state to obtain salt water, which would be evaporated to produce salt. A “spring pole” method of drilling was probably used. During this time, early settlers were also noticing gas springs and oil seeps along the Ohio River. After hearing of the success of Colonel Edmond Drake's oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859, oil exploration moved into Ohio and Indiana. Be- tween 1862 and 1869, wells were drilled in two Indiana counties, leading to the discovery of gas and oil, but the wells were not developed. Gas was discovered in what would become the Trenton Field in 1876. From 1886 into the first decade of the 20th century, gas and oil continued to be discov- ered and developed in east cen- tral Indiana. This started a boom which ultimately resulted in thou- sands of wells being drilled. This was America's first giant oil field, producing more than 100 million barrels of oil. Despite attracting and fueling many new industries in the region, the boom ended at the begin- ning of the 20th century because wasted resources and unregulated drilling practices caused a drop in production. As gas and oil production declined in northern Indiana, new discoveries were being made in the southwestern part of the state known as the Illinois. Unlike the single field of northern Indiana which produced from a single reservoir, these new discoveries pro- duced from several smaller fields and a variety of different reservoirs at different depths. Also, unlike the Trenton Field, the Illinois Basin fields produced mostly oil, not gas. Soon, all the counties in the southwestern part of the state were contributing to oil production, which peaked in 1956 at over 12 million barrels for the year. Since the early 1960s, the amount of oil produced in Indiana has declined, largely due to changes in the price of oil. There has been increased interest in drilling new holes in recent years. While most new holes are drilled as develop- ment wells in existing fields, a small amount of wildcat exploration still takes place within the state. Exploration for new r ese r ves has r esu l t ed i n an increase in the number of holes drilled. There is the potential for the discov- ery of significant new reserves in the state. Though much of the state has been thoroughly drilled, this drilling reached a depth of only a few thousand feet. A considerable portion of the subsurface remains unexplored, and many thou- sands of feet of potential reservoir exist, especially in the southern portion of the state. The current hot play in Indiana is the New Albany Shale gas play which is ut i l izing state-of-the-art complet ion technologies to access and produce natural gas from this unconventional reservoir. Many of the New Albany wells are being drilled with one or more hori- zontal boreholes, which extend outward nearly a mile from the surface drill site. 34 FEBRUARY 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® G&O