East Texas Oil Field

The East Texas Oil Field is an enormous oil and gas field in east Texas. Covering convert|140000|acre|km2 and parts of five counties, and having 30,340 historic and active oil wells, it is the largest oil field in the United States outside of Alaska, both in extent and in total volume of oil recovered since its discovery in 1930. ["East Texas Oilfield," Handbook of Texas Online] It is a component of the Mid-Continent Oil Province, the huge region of petroleum deposits extending from Kansas to New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico.

The field includes parts of Gregg, western Rusk, southern Upshur, southeastern Smith, and northeastern Cherokee counties in the northeastern part of the state. Overall the field is approximately convert|45|mi|km long on the north-south axis, and about five miles (8 km) across. Interstate 20 cuts across the field from east to west, and the towns of Kilgore, Overton, and Gladewater are on the field. At one time downtown Kilgore had more than 1,000 active wells clustered in a tight area, making it the densest oil development in the world. ["East Texas Oilfield," Handbook of Texas Online]

Geology

The primary productive geologic unit is the Cretaceous-age Woodbine Formation, a regional petroleum-bearing unit which had been known since the early part of the 20th century. This sandstone unit was deposited during a period when East Texas was a shallow sea, approximately 100 million years ago. During a subsequent period it was uplifted, eroded, and then covered again by the sea, which this time deposited a layer of impermeable chalk, creating a stratigraphic trap – a situation where oil, which is lighter than water and migrates upwards, reaches a point where it can move no farther, and pools. The source rock for the oil in East Texas is the lower-lying Eagle Ford Shale. [Hyne, p. 51-55.]

Water pressure from the adjacent aquifer is the mechanism forcing oil out of the field after being drilled. A 1932 study showed that oil wells stopped flowing when water pressure dropped below 800 pounds per square inch. [ [http://search.datapages.com/data/doi/10.1306/3D932AD8-16B1-11D7-8645000102C1865D Interpretation of Bottom-Hole Pressures in East Texas Oil Field] (AAPG Bulletin, 1932)]

History

Several early attempts were made to produce oil in the area, beginning in 1911, with the failed Millville Oil Company, but drilling technology had not progressed sufficiently to reach oil at the depths at which it is found there, which are mainly below convert|3500|ft|m; most early wells ended in broken bits, dry holes, and bankrupt operators. Finally, an enterprising Alabama man, Columbus Marion (Dad) Joiner, was the first with enough persistence to succeed, and on October 5, 1930, his Daisy Bradford No. 3 well (named after the widow who owned the farm) hit oil at convert|3536|ft|m below ground surface. This well is located near the southeastern boundary of the oil field. [East Texas Oil Field Brochure (joint production of several area Chambers of Commerce)]

Shortly after the Daisy Bradford find, and after another two smaller wells were drilled near the original hole, another new well, this one on the Crim family farm about nine miles (14 km) north of the Bradford farm, reached oil, producing a gusher with a spectacular initial daily flow of convert|22000|oilbbl|m3. That the two wells were in a connected oil pool was not immediately obvious to those who drilled them; no field this large had ever been discovered. [East Texas Oil Museum online] In January 1931, yet another group of investors and drillers put in a third important well about convert|25|mi|km north of the initial Daisy Bradford well; this one gushed convert|320|oilbbl|m3 of oil per hour, from approximately the same depth as the other two wells – convert|3587|ft|m. Within a few months, drillers, landowners, and investors began to realize they had a spectacular oil field two-thirds of a mile under their feet, one which would produce enormous quantities of high-grade oil almost anywhere they drilled. ["East Texas Oilfield," Handbook of Texas Online]

It was the enormous quantities of oil from the East Texas Oil Field, and their importance to the Allied effort in World War II, that led to the creation of the world's largest pipeline until that time, the "Big Inch", a convert|24|in|mm|sing=on, convert|1400|mi|km|sing=on pipeline which transported crude to refineries in the Philadelphia area. Prior to building the pipeline, oil could only be transported by ship, and many such ships were sunk by German submarines during the early part of the war, especially in 1942 and early 1943. Construction of the pipeline commenced in August 1942, and on March 2, 1944 it was done. By the end of the war, over convert|350|Moilbbl|m3 of crude flowed from East Texas to the northeast states through the Big Inch. ["Big Inch and Little Big Inch", Handbook of Texas Online]

Since its discovery, the East Texas Oil Field has produced more than convert|5.2|Goilbbl|m3 of oil, and originally contained more than convert|7|Goilbbl|m3. ["East Texas Oilfield," Handbook of Texas Online] [Hyne, p. 52]

References

*Norman J. Hyne: "Nontechnical Guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling, and Production." PennWell Books, 2001. ISBN 087814823X
*Handbook of Texas|id=EE/doe1|name=East Texas Oil Field
* [http://www.txgenes.com/TxGregg/OilField.html Gregg County's Oil Field]
* [http://www.aoghs.org/ American Oil and Natural Gas Historical Society]
* [http://www.booksontexas.com/product_p/og1543.htm Texas Oil and Gas Since 1543]
* [http://www.forttours.com/pages/kilgore.asp East Texas Oil Field Brochure]
* [http://www.easttexasoilmuseum.com/Pages/history.html East Texas Oil Museum online]

Notes