The 246 domestic wells on file within 5 miles of Oil City, from the state’s drilling logs: your neighbors’ wells, and the best guide to this ground.
Source: PaGWIS (PA DCNR), domestic wells within 5 miles, retrieved 2026-09-30; older paper-record locations are approximate.
Planning for a Wide Depth Range Near Oil City
Well depths here spread wide. Pennsylvania’s well database, PaGWIS, has 246 depth logs within 5 miles, and while the median is 100 feet, a quarter stopped at 58 or less and another quarter went to 145 or more. By median depth, Oil City ranks 4th of 10 Venango County towns.
For a homeowner, that range means the depth of a new well isn’t known until it is drilled. The driller watches the flow as the hole advances and stops once there is enough for the house, which on some lots comes early and on others takes far more footage. A budget should allow for that. How well costs add up shows where footage figures in, and air rotary and cable tool drilling is covered on our drilling page.
Rock and Casing Under Oil City
Rock is usually reached early. Of the 133 logs that record it, the median depth to bedrock is 20 feet, and the middle half runs from 11 to 33. Under the town, the mapped rock is the Late Devonian Corry Sandstone through Riceville Formation, made up of sandstone, shale and siltstone. Casing usually runs through the soil and seats in solid rock, so on most lots it is a short part of the job, and the rest of the hole is open rock.
On an older well, the casing top, cap and pump are among the things a well inspection checks. The city’s own supply is groundwater as well, from 15 wells, and homes on it get their water report from the city system. Oil City water treatment covers what that system does.
