Surface Machinery and Methods for Oil-Well Pumping Page: 120

120 SURFACE MACHINERY AND METHODS FOR OIL-WELL PUMPING.
Operators using corrugated-steel tanks claim that they are more rigid
than ordinary steel tanks, and hence the smaller sizes can more read-
ily be moved from place to place without being taken apart.
Plate XXXI, A, shows a steel gun-barrel tank at a and produc-
tion tanks at b and c, as used in the Kern River field, California.
The oil, water, and sand from the wells is delivered through the
flume d to the gun-barrel tank, where the sand and water is drawn
off before the oil is pumped to the production tanks.
Plate XXXI, B, shows a steel gun-barrel tank, a, and four pro-
duction tanks, b, in the Big Muddy field, Wyoming. As in the
Kern River field, the water produced with the oil is drawn from the
bottom of the gun-barrel tank before the oil is run to the production
tanks. At c is the boiler used for steaming the oil before it is run.
Plate XXXII, A, at a, shows a corrugated-steel production tank
in the Santa Maria field, California.
Production tanks generally range in size from 50 to 2,000 barrels,
according to the production requirements of the property.
Evaporation losses from tanks are decreased by proper housing,
water-sealed tops, and closed tops.22
CONCRETE RESERVOIRS.
Concrete reservoirs are used instead of steel or wooden tanks in
some of the California and Mid-Continent fields to steam emulsified
oil before it is delivered to the storage tanks. One type used by a
company in the Eldorado field, Kansas, is made 11 by 26 feet in area
and 51 feet deep with walls, bottom, and baffle plates of reinforced
concrete 6 inches thick.
PIPE LINES AND FLUMES.
Crude oil is led from the well to production and storage tanks
through a collecting system of pipe lines. From the storage tanks
the oil is run through larger pipe lines to the storage tanks of the
purchasing company, and from these through 6-inch or 8-inch lines
to the refinery.
The natural gas is piped from the well with the oil to the gas
trap, or to the gasoline-recovery plant if the gas is wet, and then
to the point of consumption.
PIPE AND JOINTS.
The pipe generally used for oil, gas, and water lines is standard
steel pipe with threaded couplings. Table 8 gives the sizes and
"2 Wiggins, J. H., Evaporation losses of petroleum in the Mid-Continent field: Bull. 200,
Bureau of Mines, 1922, 115 pp.