Oil

“Oil” refers to two types of hydrocarbons, crude and condensate.  Crude oil is produced at the wellhead in liquid form at atmospheric pressures and temperatures.  Condensate is recovered as a byproduct of natural gas production.  The major uses for petroleum products are gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil (often used for heating homes), propane, aviation fuel, petrochemical feedstocks, kerosene, lubricants, waxes, and asphalt.

Figure 1. Crude oil production locations in 2006.

Year of first production in Virginia:  1942
Location of first production in Virginia: Lee County
Year of Last Production in Virginia: currently producing
Location of Last production in Virginia: Buchanan, Russell, Lee, and Wise counties
Total cumulative production: 631,400 barrels since 1950
Total current annual production: 16,881 barrels in 2006

Crude oil is produced in Lee and Wise counties in southwest Virginia.  In 2006, Equitable Production Company, Pride Oil Company, and United Well Service produced oil from wells in Lee and Russell Counties.  Chesapeake Appalachia, Daugherty Petroleum, and Equitable Production Company produced oil from wells that also produced natural gas in Buchanan, Lee and Wise counties.  In 2006, there were 3 producing oil wells, and 71 gas wells that also produced oil.

Most of the historical oil production was from the Ben Hur-Fleenortown and Rose Hill fields in Lee County.  The oil is produced from several zones within the fractured Upper Ordovician Trenton Limestone of the Appalachian Basin.  The Trenton was folded into an anticline under the Cumberland Overthrust Block, in the Appalachian Plateaus Province.

Figure 2. Virginia Oil Production, 1995-2007.

Figure 3. Estimated Value of Oil Produced in Virginia, 1995-2007.

Data sources: Production from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Division of Gas and Oil, Abingdon, Virginia (updated yearly). Unit price from the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Washington, D.C. (updated yearly). Data available upon request.

In 2006, Virginia accounted for less than 1 percent of U.S. crude oil proved reserves, and ranked last in crude oil production, accounting for less than 1 percent of U.S. production.  There were 16,881 barrels of crude oil produced in Virginia, with an estimated value of about $1.1 million.  Annual oil production in Virginia reached its peak in 1983 at 65,400 barrels.  It has declined since then, reaching an annual low of 8,804 barrels in 1999.  Between 1999 and 2005, annual production increased 300 percent, to a high of 26,417 barrels.  Much of this increase in production was related to production completions in several gas wells that were also capable of producing oil, but were classified as gas wells because of their high gas to oil production ratio.  In 2006, there was a decline in production of 36 percent or 9,536 barrels.

Selected References:

Gilmer, Amy K., Enomoto, Catherine B., Lovett, James A., and Spears, David B., 2005, Mineral and Fossil Fuel Production in Virginia (1999-2003): Virginia Division of Mineral Resource Open File Report 05-04, 77 p.

LeVan, D. C., and Rader, E. K., 1983, Relationship of Stratigraphy to Occurrences of Oil and Gas in Western Virginia; VDMR Publication 43, one sheet.

Milici, Robert C., and Upchurch, Michael L., 1991, VDMR Brochure “Oil and Gas in Virginia” revised 2007.

Miller, R. L., and Fuller, J. O., 1954, Geology and Oil Resources of the Rose Hill District – the Fenster Area of the Cumberland Overthrust Block – Lee County, Virginia; VDMR Bulletin 71, 383 p., 50 pls., 17 figs., 17 tables, 11 geologic sections.

Nolde, J. E., 1992, Oil and Gas Well Data and Geology, Lee County, Virginia; VDMR Publication 113, 13 p., 2 maps, scale 1:50,000.

Other Links:

Virginia Division of Gas and Oil

U.S. Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.doe.gov

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