Here's some decades-old info about oil prospects in Tioga County with some scientific background to ponder:  "Tioga cannot be considered a favorable county in which to prospect for oil. Coal, where present, in Tioga County has a much lower volatile hydrocarbon content than do coals in the principal oil fields of the State, isovol values in Tioga County ranging between 20 and 37.51 whereas, in the principal oil field belt they generally exceed 40. That the isovol values available to us are not infallible indices of
the presence of oil is attested by the occurrence of a small commercial oil
field at Gaines. The Gaines Field is an exception to the rule. That exception can be satisfactorily explained, but the explanation does not exclude the possibility of another "Gaines" being found. The point we make here is not that other oil fields cannot exist in this area, but merely that the chance of finding other commercial fields is so small that drilling for them cannot be considered a good prospecting venture."