The history of oil fields covers a broad scope and evolving technology that today encompasses real-time monitoring of producing fields, geophysical techniques that greatly reduce drilling risk, and sophisticated engineering techniques for drilling and producing oil from hostile environments such as in thousands of feet of water. These capabilities were not created overnight. The pioneers of our industry set the groundwork that made these advances possible. They didn’t do that out of altruistic impulse. They tinkered and innovated with a strong desire for financial gain, not for pure science or for the benefit of mankind, although pure science and all of mankind has greatly benefited.


Col. Edwin Drake (right) stands with local druggist Peter Wilson at the Titusville well site in 1861. (Photo courtesy of Lee Lawyer)

The early workers did a lot of cut-and-fit work, improvising to get the job done. For example, rotary drilling methods were developed by water well drillers and then co-opted by the oil well drillers who used these methods to replace the older cable tool methods. The Schlumberger brothers started their exploration methods by conducting surface electrical surveys searching for ore bodies. Then, with a flash of insight, they put their tools downhole, and the well logging industry was started. Early seismic methods were employed to determine the location of enemy artillery batteries. Again, with a flash of insight, these methods were applied to the measurement of subsurface structure. And the seismic exploration industry was born.


Don’t mistake the efforts. They were not cooperative. Exploration is extremely competitive and always has been. Secrecy is the byword. Maps are locked away in vaults at night. The sizes of bids for public leases are closely held secrets, known only by a very few in the company. A well was drilled nearly 20 years ago near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The results of that test are still secret.


In the early days oil scouts were predatory, searching for clues about a drilling wildcat or the start of a lease play. Red Brown with Standard Oil Company of Texas was asked to scout a competitor wildcat during a testing period, which was at night. He approached the site carefully, coasting to a nearby road intersection without lights. The alert drilling crew spotted him. They turned massive flood lights in his direction and played loud music to muffle any sounds from the rig. Completely blinded by the light, he returned home without any useful information. Had he been able to count the stands of pipe, he would have been able to tell the depth to the tested horizon.


Later, the scouts formed an organization. They held “Scout Checks” during which they exchanged information about their respective company’s drilling activity. It wasn’t very long before oil scouts became dinosaurs and suffered the same fate as their ancestors at the end of the Cretaceous.


Col. Edwin Drake gets credit for drilling the first well in 1859. He was actually looking for oil. He found it at a total depth of 69 ft (21 m). His great discovery was never offset in that horizon. The reservoir was only a few feet thick (and he wasn’t a colonel). But he started a major oil play in Pennsylvania that spread around the world.


We read stories about the “fabled” wildcatters of the past. They really had to have a gambler’s mentality. They drilled some very risky ventures, but they were playing for high stakes. On Jan. 10, 1901, a couple of optimists decided that gas bubbling up through a “sour lake” was good enough evidence for a wildcat location. They were Anthony Lucas and Patillo Higgins. Their first well blew in at a phenomenal rate, some say 100,000 bbl/day, raining oil down on the countryside. The frenetic scramble at Spindletop resulted in the startup of The Texas Fuel Company, better known as Texaco, and a company called Gulf Oil Co. A little later, Shell would buy in to Spindletop.


Basic transportation for an early GRC seismic crew.

During the same time frame, a young geologist working for his geology degree at the University of Oklahoma got the chance to map surface structure in Mexico’s Golden Lane. Everett Lee DeGolyer was credited with locating the highly prolific Potrero del Llano #4 in 1910 for Mexican Eagle. One of the owners of that company was Sir Weetman Pearson of England, who would later become Lord Cowdry. DeGolyer would become famous for his innovations in the technology of exploration. Some refer to him as the “Father of Geophysics.” With financing from Pearson, DeGolyer would start Amerada and Rycade.


He brought two torsion balances into the oil field in 1921. He first surveyed Spindletop and then searched for lookalikes. He found one and started drilling dry holes. The industry wags called it DeGolyer’s golf course since with one more hole he would have the requisite number for an 18-hole golf course. He drilled on the edge of the dome and made a modest discovery, the first found using geophysics. This was the Nash Dome.


It seems that 1921 was a geophysical start-up year. That is the year that Ludger Mintrop started Seismos in Germany. The first use of his mechanical seismograph was to detect the location of enemy artillery batteries during WWI using refraction arrivals. Mintrop’s interest in refractions didn’t stop with the end of the war. He filed for patents in 1919 and used his technique in Europe to discover the first salt dome using seismic methods. No oil, just salt.


Still, we don’t give Mintrop nearly enough credit for the geophysical revolution that took place in the ‘20s. In 1923 two Seismos crews were dispatched overseas, one to Shell (Mexican Eagle) in Mexico and one to Marlin Oil Co. in Oklahoma. Mintrop personally supervised the work in Oklahoma, which was the first refraction work shot in the United States.


Neither crew did very well, which is understandable with today’s geologic knowledge of those areas. Gulf took the crew contracted to Marlin, moved it to the Gulf Coast and came up with a refraction technique called fan shooting. The first seismic discovery was by Gulf using a Seismos crew on Orchard Dome. Interestingly, 55 years later Chevron (nee Gulf) shot a 3-D survey on that same dome.


Seismos crews discovered many shallow salt domes along the Texas-Louisiana Gulf coast for various clients. They didn’t have the nice regional knowledge that we possess today. This was rank wildcat exploration. It was the roaring ’20s, famous for prohibition, but they were also important years for the development of geophysical techniques.


John Clarence Karcher et al. developed seismic reflection methods for exploration but had to wait until DeGolyer organized the Geophysical Research Company in 1927 to seriously apply them to exploration. Many great service companies would be developed in those years: Schlumberger, GSI, Western and Petty, to name a few.


We like to dramatize the efforts of the early pioneers in the oil business. There is no question that drama is there, especially associated with the huge oil discoveries that started many giant oil companies. But there is also real drama is the development of the incredible capabilities we have today. The technical pioneers tried and failed and then tried again. Methods were applied and discarded. Experimentation was extensive as people looked for methods to reduce the high risk of exploration. We should pay homage to these people. A few latter-day examples are John M Crawford and William E.N. Doty for the development of Vibroseis, Enders Robinson for his work with deconvolution, Sam Worden for the development of a light portable gravimeter, and Steve Chelminski for the air gun. These are but a few who have contributed to today’s amazing exploration technology.



Editor’s Note: Lee Lawyer writes a monthly column for The Leading Edge, one of the magazines published by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.