In article , dpb wrote:
On 4/13/2011 12:44 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
....

Not by suction, if it's coming from more than 10.34 meters below the surface.

Excepting for the density difference, of course...

Yeah, forgot about that. Crude oil's pretty dense, though. Less dense than
water, but not by much IIRC. Say 12 meters or so.

Altho afaik, no oil wells use suction pumps even if were within the
range of lift which would be theoretically possible.