THE MINING AND QUARRY INDUSTRY IQIO 45 



NATURAL GAS 



Natural gas is produced in fifteen counties of the State, all of 

 which are situated in the western half in the section between Lake 

 Ontario and the Pennsylvania boundary. The principal fields are 

 in Erie, Chautauqua, Allegany, and Cattaraugus counties, but scat- 

 tered pools occur as far east as Oswego county. The eastern part 

 of the State seems to be barren of productive pools at least nothing 

 of importance has been found there after persistent and rather 

 thorough exploration; the disturbed condition of the strata perhaps 

 has prevented the accumulation of gas in quantity. 



The range of the gas pools geologically may be said to extend 

 from the base of the Paleozoic sedimentary formations, the Pots- 

 dam sandstone, to the Chemung and Portage formations of the 

 Devonic, which are near the top of the Paleozoic series as represented 

 in New York. Certain formations, however, are more prolific than 

 others, and the wells in each field, as a rule, derive their main supply 

 from a definite horizon. In Erie county the more important pools 

 have been found in the Medina sandstone, which is also the source 

 of the supply of the new Pavilion field in Genesee county and of the 

 recent fields opened in northern Chautauqua county. The Portage 

 and Chemung formations of the Devonic yield perhaps most of the 

 gas obtained from the fields of southern Allegany and Cattaraugus 

 counties. Another important horizon is the Trenton which contri- 

 butes most of the supply in Onondaga and Oswego counties. 



The production of natural gas has increased markedly of late 

 years, despite the fact that many of the fields have been exploited 

 for a long time. The wide demand for this cheap and convenient 

 source of heat and light has been an incentive to active exploration 

 that has extended into every promising section. The recent addi- 

 tions to the supply have come principally from the drilling in old 

 territory of deep wells which tap. the lower productive strata like 

 the Medina sandstone rather than from any extensions of the geo- 

 graphic limits of the fields. 



The reports received from the producers for the year 1910 

 showed a total of about 1340 productive wells of which the output 

 was used for fuel and lighting purposes. This does not include the 

 wells in the oil region which supply gas for pumping operations. 

 The number of individual producers was about two hundred, most 

 of whom, however, made only a small output from one or two wells 

 for their own supply. Aside from these minor enterprises, there 

 were some forty companies who produced and distributed gas in 



