Oil wells

Oil well fields:
Oil wells are used to pump up oil from the ground. In the USA especially in California where huge oil fields are located these wells are placed in big groups. This makes some impressive manufactured landscapes like here in Missouri Triangle in California where the largest concentration of oil wells in the world is found:





This oil well field north of Bakersfield can also be seen in birdview with Micorsoft live maps:



California had even more impressive oil well fields in the beginning of the 20th century. At the coast at Long Beach in Los Angeles, where people are now swimming, giant oil derricks stood in a high concentration:




And in Signall hill north of Long beach Complete "woods" of these derricks stood on top of a hill. Today nothing is left of this:


This is because when a well no longer produces or produces so poorly that it is a liability, it is abandoned. In this process, tubing is removed from the well and sections of well bore are filled with cement to isolate the flow path between gas and water zones from each other, as well as the surface. The surface around the wellhead is then excavated, and the wellhead and casing are cut off, a cap is welded in place and then buried. Not only in the USA these kind of large concentrations of oil wells can be found. Here near Lagunillas in Venezuela for example a large concentration of offshore wells can be found:


Here in Baky the capital city of Azerbeidzjan which is an important oil city this oil derrick field is situated:


At the beginning of the 20th century this city looked very futuristic with all the oil derricks together. The derricks were very close to each other, making the risk of fire eminent ( these things were made of wood ), and the noise level horrendous: