Driving on a big roadtrip.
In those states, on many farms, there are what look like miniature oil derricks. One had a blowoff flame.
Natural gas?
What do they use them for on the farm? Certainly if it was crude, the quantity would be so small that it would not be worth refining, and you couldn't burn it in anything but a furnace.
Also: Wichita is a surprisingly cool place.
I think they just sell the oil that is pumped out, some run the pump engine off the natural gas.
They get paid by the gov't not to pump oil so oil prices don't drop.
In reply to tuna55:
These?
The ones I know of are all crude oil, although apparently there is also natural gas production in the area too.
Oil derricks or pump jacks? Pumps for shallow wells are smaller than a cow and look absurdly small in a field. The amount of time they pump has more to do with where in the life of the well they are than anything else. A new well in an ovepressured area will have enough pressure to bring oil to the surface itself, no pump needed. As the pressure draws down you need to pull the oil to the surface. However, you can't pull too hard or you either break down the formation or pull your water (which is brine at those depths) ahead of your oil. There is an ideal drawdown pressure for each formation and period of decline and reaching that pressure might only require pumping for a few minutes a day.
The pumps look like they are alone in the fields but they're connected with pipes underground to a central tank system (or to a pipeline if one is close) for collection and separation of water and gas. Wells that don't require a pump (or ones that use a different system) just look like a couple of pipes and valves sticking out of the ground. There are several ways to lift oil, but pump jacks are cheap, reliable, and can be re-used when a well is plugged and abandoned. There are plenty of pump jacks out there that are much older than the wells they're sitting on.
You see flares a lot less than you used to. This is a combination of the value of gas and environmental regulations.
They are oil jacks. They are scattered all over the countryside in some states. Kind of strange to see them in the middle of a corn field.
The last road trip we made, about 25% of them seem to be running.
Pro tip: don't try to ride the kind in Pete's photograph, especially while intoxicated. My old boss did, and he lost a leg below his knee (also got discharged from the Army). They may look like a mechanical bull but they give no berkeleys if somebody gets a limb trapped.
OHSCrifle wrote: Pro tip: don't try to ride the kind in Pete's photograph, especially while intoxicated. My old boss did, and he lost a leg below his knee (also got discharged from the Army). They may look like a mechanical bull but they give no berkeleys if somebody gets a limb trapped.
Jesus berkeley! 
All over the place in OK.
Tolly's father invented the pump that's down at the bottom of those wells.
In reply to OHSCrifle:
How did this man survive long enough to become someone's boss?
Just like if you suck on a milkshake too hard, you will have a hard time recovering all the fluid, it's important to produce at a rate that will result in highest recovery over the life of the well, so some states establish an "allowable" production rate to help maximize ultimate recovery per well - this also results in pumps being shut down periodically. There is no shortage of oil in the ground, the challenge is in getting as much out as possible. Ultimate recoverable percentage is much lower than most people realize due to many factors, including how porous the formation is, how much water is also present, the viscosity of the oil, how well connected the pores are that contain the oil, and lots of other variables. If we could figure out how to produce another 10% of oil that is not presently technically possible, we'd be swimming in oil for decades.
You know, I've learned something here today...
AngryCorvair wrote: You know, I've learned something here today...
I think that to myself a lot here.
tuna55 wrote: Also: Wichita is a surprisingly cool place.
An opinion of Kansas not shared by all:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote:Because berkeley Kansas.
Re one of the OP's original questions regarding use of the oil on the farm: Short answer, it's not used on the farm. Oil companies lease the right to produce petroleum from the owner of the mineral rights, and the mineral rights owner gets a percentage of the income from the value of the oil that is produced. The mineral rights owner may or may not be the same as the surface rights owner. In many cases the two were separated many years ago, so the farmer may or may not be the mineral rights owner. The mineral rights owner could be a person, or the state, or the federal government (actually the people of the United States, managed for them by the Department of the Interior). Oil and gas law gets very complicated, very quickly.
Most of us think we own our land and what's under the surface, but most of us just own surface rights, at least in the West.
Even if you only have surface rights, you still make some cash off of the oil.
There were 5 wells on my grandfathers farm, he was paid a lease for the land and the access road.
penultimeta wrote: In reply to OHSCrifle: How did this man survive long enough to become someone's boss?
Young and dumb always has, and always will be a thing.
As the story was told to me, be wasn't alone when the damage was done, so the gory accident wasn't fatal.
Cool. Thanks guys!
We're in the Rockies now. They are big. And rocky.
Marjorie Suddard wrote:AngryCorvair wrote: You know, I've learned something here today...I think that to myself a lot here.
And most of the time, it's not something that I desperately want to un-learn!
Most of the time.
They could be gas wells and they're after the condensate or natural gas liquids, which are generally worth more than oil. If there is no transmission network for the gas, they may be flaring it to get rid of it because venting is not allowed.
If it is gas, the farm may be using it as a condition on their lease. We have several gas well on our farm and we are entitled to unlimited, free natural gas as a provision in the 1911 lease. Every building and barn has a heater. In exchange, the gas company gets to use our driveway (and maintain/gravel it) to get to the well. It all depends on the deed and lease agreement. The next farm over has to pay for their gas.
I might have to figure some of this stuff out for myself. A relative was recently offered a pre-production property lease. (Apparently, this just limits you to signing a lease with the production company actually doing the exploration)
On a related note, anyone know a good oil/gas lawyer in the Great Lakes area? It's not in my wheelhouse and I have absolutely no connections to that industry to even know who to ask.
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