oilfieldn.
/ˈɔɪlfiːld/, U.S. /ˈɔɪlˌfild/ An area of land or seabed underlain by oil-bearing strata, esp. in amounts that support commercial exploitation and with the oil forming a number of distinct accumulations or pools.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > minerals > mineral sources > [noun] > tract of land
ground1548
coalfield1734
gas field1833
tin-ground1839
gold-diggings1848
goldfield1848
oilfield1863
oil belt1865
flat1869
tin-field1898
copper belt1955
oil patch1958
1863 Harper's Mag. July 261/1 Of the more specially productive oil-fields the best known and hitherto most abounding one is a broad area embracing a part of Canada West from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron.
1884 Manch. Examiner 8 Sept. 8/3 Bearish news from the oilfields brought down prices.
1912 W. S. Tower & J. Roberts Petroleum i. 11 In most cases there is a comparatively large area which can be called an ‘oil field’... Within the main field there are usually several distinct areas, or ‘pools’, from which the chief production comes.
1930 C. T. Brunner Probl. of Oil i. 11 The bulk of the American output still comes from the mid-Continental and Californian oilfields.
1958 New Scientist 30 Jan. 8/3 If there exists suitable limestone or sandstone to form a reservoir rock, with an impervious ‘cap-rock’ layer above it, all the conditions for an oil field will be present.
1973 Scotsman 21 Feb. 1/4 Another oilfield has been discovered in the North Sea, just inside the British sector and about 170 miles east-north-east of Aberdeen.
2000 Time 28 Feb. 44/3 The younger Bush..did enough time in the sandlots and oil fields of the Permian basin to become a real Texan.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1863