50
folded and faulted rocks that drillers had come to associate with the presence of oil.
If one could go back in time and purchase a boatload of cheap oil leases, the TexasLouisiana Gulf Coast would have been the place to do so.
An experienced mining engineer and salt driller named Anthony F. Lucas (born
in Croatia as Antun Lucic in 1855) decided to drill a well in 1901 on a 12-foot
(3.6 m) high hill south of Beaumont, Texas called Spindletop to see if he could find
oil. Lucas suspected that Spindletop Hill might be the surface expression of a salt
dome, and reasoned that deformed sediments along the flanks of the dome could
contain trapped oil. A self-taught geologist named Patillo Higgins had spent years
trying to convince investors to drill for oil on salt domes, but his ideas were met with
widespread skepticism. Higgins finally found a believer in Lucas.
Lucas made a lease agreement in 1899 with Higgins, built a derrick and began
drilling in October 1900. He ran out of money after drilling to only 575 feet (180 m),
and secured additional funds from Pittsburgh oilmen John H. Galey and James
M. Guffey (Yergin 1991). On January 10, 1901 the drill bit reached a depth of
1020 feet (311 m) and drilling mud began bubbling out of the hole. Workers fled
from the site as the mud flow increased, followed by a chuff of natural gas and then
an eruption of oil in a “gusher,” which reached a height of more than 150 feet (46 m).
The Lucas well had an initial production rate of nearly 100,000 barrels of oil per
day, more than all of the other existing oil wells in America combined.
The well spouted oil into the air for 9 days before finally being brought under
control. The event continued long enough for a number of local newspaper photographers and even landscape painters to capture images of the gusher (Fig. 3.5), and
it remains an enduring symbol from the early days of oil. (https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/spindletop-launches-modern-oil-industry/; accessed 8/15/2019).
The important thing about Spindletop was not the gusher itself, but how it
changed the oil and gas business (Yergin 1991). Oil drillers began to integrate geologic thinking into their strategy. If one salt dome had oil, maybe others did as well.
This led to the successful development of other salt dome oilfields, resulting in
discoveries at Sour Lake in 1902, Batson in 1904, and Humble in 1905. Oil well
engineering also improved, with the development of the “Christmas tree” wellhead
to contain downhole pressures, new ideas for balanced drilling by adding barite to
drilling mud to increase the weight, and the invention of the blow-out preventer
(BOP), a hydraulic ram designed to close off an out-of-control well.
Spindletop led the United States into the oil age (Yergin 1991). The industry realigned itself from producing small amounts of kerosene lantern fuel and lubricants
and moved into other markets. The Gulf Coast was recognized as a world-class
petroleum province and remains an important hydrocarbon producer today. Oil
companies that were created to develop these resources were some of the most significant and innovative to ever exist, although many have disappeared through
mergers. Still, names like Gulf Oil, Texaco, Humble, Pure Oil, and others are monuments to the importance of oil and gas recovery from the Gulf Coast. Petroleum
became economically feasible as a fuel for mass consumption and could displace
coal as the primary energy resource in the United States. It soon became widely
used for transportation and electrical generation.
3 The History of Oil & Gas Development in the U.S.
folded and faulted rocks that drillers had come to associate with the presence of oil.
If one could go back in time and purchase a boatload of cheap oil leases, the TexasLouisiana Gulf Coast would have been the place to do so.
An experienced mining engineer and salt driller named Anthony F. Lucas (born
in Croatia as Antun Lucic in 1855) decided to drill a well in 1901 on a 12-foot
(3.6 m) high hill south of Beaumont, Texas called Spindletop to see if he could find
oil. Lucas suspected that Spindletop Hill might be the surface expression of a salt
dome, and reasoned that deformed sediments along the flanks of the dome could
contain trapped oil. A self-taught geologist named Patillo Higgins had spent years
trying to convince investors to drill for oil on salt domes, but his ideas were met with
widespread skepticism. Higgins finally found a believer in Lucas.
Lucas made a lease agreement in 1899 with Higgins, built a derrick and began
drilling in October 1900. He ran out of money after drilling to only 575 feet (180 m),
and secured additional funds from Pittsburgh oilmen John H. Galey and James
M. Guffey (Yergin 1991). On January 10, 1901 the drill bit reached a depth of
1020 feet (311 m) and drilling mud began bubbling out of the hole. Workers fled
from the site as the mud flow increased, followed by a chuff of natural gas and then
an eruption of oil in a “gusher,” which reached a height of more than 150 feet (46 m).
The Lucas well had an initial production rate of nearly 100,000 barrels of oil per
day, more than all of the other existing oil wells in America combined.
The well spouted oil into the air for 9 days before finally being brought under
control. The event continued long enough for a number of local newspaper photographers and even landscape painters to capture images of the gusher (Fig. 3.5), and
it remains an enduring symbol from the early days of oil. (https://aoghs.org/petroleum-pioneers/spindletop-launches-modern-oil-industry/; accessed 8/15/2019).
The important thing about Spindletop was not the gusher itself, but how it
changed the oil and gas business (Yergin 1991). Oil drillers began to integrate geologic thinking into their strategy. If one salt dome had oil, maybe others did as well.
This led to the successful development of other salt dome oilfields, resulting in
discoveries at Sour Lake in 1902, Batson in 1904, and Humble in 1905. Oil well
engineering also improved, with the development of the “Christmas tree” wellhead
to contain downhole pressures, new ideas for balanced drilling by adding barite to
drilling mud to increase the weight, and the invention of the blow-out preventer
(BOP), a hydraulic ram designed to close off an out-of-control well.
Spindletop led the United States into the oil age (Yergin 1991). The industry realigned itself from producing small amounts of kerosene lantern fuel and lubricants
and moved into other markets. The Gulf Coast was recognized as a world-class
petroleum province and remains an important hydrocarbon producer today. Oil
companies that were created to develop these resources were some of the most significant and innovative to ever exist, although many have disappeared through
mergers. Still, names like Gulf Oil, Texaco, Humble, Pure Oil, and others are monuments to the importance of oil and gas recovery from the Gulf Coast. Petroleum
became economically feasible as a fuel for mass consumption and could displace
coal as the primary energy resource in the United States. It soon became widely
used for transportation and electrical generation.
3 The History of Oil & Gas Development in the U.S.