1st Oil Well, Edwin Drake, Feb 1920
Produced 40 BBLS/day, 69' Deep.
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Black and white pictures from National Geog. Feb 1920. Site of America's Pioneer Oil Well, Aug 28, 1859, when Edwin L. Drake struck it rich, near Titusville, PA The bore hole was only 69 feet and produced a flow of 40 bbls per day which soon dropped to 15 bbls per day. For his efforts, poor Drake received only a small annuity from Pennsylvania and a monument from the industry he founded.

Capt. Lucas Oil Well, First Gusher,
Beaumont, TX. 1901, 100,000 Bbls
/Day. Price of oil $2.00 per Barrel
The Capt. Lucas' Oil Well Jan 10, 1901. The oil industry was born this day, when a huge oil gusher was drilled on the flank of a salt dome at 1,020 feet. It shot in the air for 160 feet with 100,000 bbls of oil per day, out of control. The oil ws stored in an open earth pit, beside the railroad track. After 2 days, open fire from the trains set it on fire. A device called a Christmas Tree ws invented to control the flow after 9 days. With so much oil, the price dropped from $2.00 per bbbl. to only 30 cents per bbl. Note in 1945, George Gebhardt worked on a drill rig at Humble's Lovell Lake field, located only 8 mile from the Capt Lucas well. Tody, a bronze marker at the Spindletop location, tells the whole story.

400 Wells, side by side, known
as Spindletop, on Boiler Avenue
This field, outside of Beaumont, TX was known as SPINDLETOP. More than 400 wells were drilled on this hill. It ws said, "You could walk across the field without getting off a derrick floor." $80 million dollars was invested and only $50 million income. This is how things looked down BOILER AVE. in 1903 with no regulations of well spacing enforced

Offshore Wells, in California, 1916
Oil Spills, & sloppy work were Bad.
The Summerland Field in Santa Barbara County, CA. about 1916. . Most of these wells were drilled 300 feet below sea level to reach the oil. Proper well spacing would have recovered more oil at far less cost than the above. Sloppy operation and oil spills gave drilling in the ocean a bad name.

Too many wells drilled on small
Dome. Supplied oil for W.W. I.
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Oil wells in Ventura County, Calif. Note the wooden oil derricks all over the hillside in rough terrain. These wells help supply Allied forces in World War I. Marshal Foch qoted that " a drop of gasoline was worth a drop of blood."

Mexico's 1st Gusher was just
like the one in Beaumont, TX.
Cerro Azul No. 4 in full force. The first blast of gas and oil threw the 2-ton drill bit high in the air, landing 125 feet away. The force of the wild well, completely wrecked the wooden derrick.

World's greatest oil well, 1908,
made it 2nd to the United States.
Mexico's Cerro Azul No. 4 was hailed as the The world's greatest oil well in 1908, making Mexico 2nd only to the United States in production. . This wild blowout rained oil 600 feet high and drenched the area with oil for 2 miles around. Over 1 million bbls flowed in the first week beforfe being harnessed.

A Forest of Oil Well Derricks. from
National Geographic Magazine 1920.
In 1920, a countless forest of Oil well derricks, too numerous to count. A glimpse of a Southern Calif Oil Field. In the early days there were no laws, such as 40 acre well spacing. This picture shows the waste of capital and labor in competitive drilling. Nat Geographic Feb 1920.

Desert Storm, 1991. 500 Blazing Oil
Wells, "Blown out by Explosives."
This series of pictures from National Geog. Aug 1991. The Persian Gulf after Desert Storm. Taming a wild well. The flame has been blown out by nitro glycerine and the wild oil well must be harnessed. Teams trained in taming wild wells came from all over the world. Most of the 500 wild wells were brought under control in the first 9 months, far beyond the hopes of the most optimistic.

Camels searching for untainted
shrubs and water, in Black sand.
Sandwiched between blackened sand and sky, camels search for untainted shrubs and water in the burning oil fields of southern Kuwait. Their desperste forging relfects the environmental plight of a region ravaged by the Gulf War.

Millions of Barrells of Oil were lost
both on the surface & Underground.
500 burning oil wells, spew flames, soot, and oil from dynamited wells. Strategically, it was senseless. The only casulty was the environment. Millions of barrels of oil were lost both on the surface and damage done to the sub-surface pressures of the oil reservoirs, one and two miles deep.

Heavy Black Smoke from 500 Wild
Burning Oil Wells, Turns Day into Night
It is late morning, but under the oil clouds, the only bright spots are flaiming wells-and the tracks left by the photographer;s car. The oily soot covered top layer of sand adhered to the tires, uncovering the white desert surface underneath.

500 Wild Burning Oil Wells in
Kuwait, Set by Retreating Iraquis
Photo by Satellite, from 440 Miles
up. Oil and Soot Couds rose 20,000'
A swarm of Tornado-like plumes from the Burgan oil field in Kuwait (the world's 2nd largest) blacken the sky as oil-and-soot clouds rose 22,000 feet, releasing tons of pollutants daily. Taken from 440 miles up on TWO passes in Feb 1991. Look close for the tongues of red flames belching from 500 wild burning oil wells. Bottom hole pressures of 15,000 lbs per sq.in. complicates the dousing of the fires. The plumes threatened Iranian crops with acid rain and were carried as far East as India.

BIRTH OF OIL WELLS