An eventful year, 1947 marked many changes, including all-new drilling horizons
New book from the Offshore Energy Center traces the history of the modern offshore petroleum industry from its early beginnings in the 1800s through its significant milestones of development through the middle of the 20th century.
Earlier this month, the global offshore petroleum industry marked the 60th anniversary of completion of the first commercial offshore oil well drilled by a “mobile” rig out of sight of land.
While at the time few acknowledged the unique aspects of the well - drilled in 14 ft of water in the open Gulf of Mexico’s Ship Shoal Area off southeastern Louisiana - the occasion later was declared an important event in the history of the petroleum industry - one that created a whole new phase of finding and producing crude oil and natural gas.
When the well - the Kerr-McGee-Phillips-Stanolind-State of Louisiana, Block 32, No. 1 - began to flow oil on Oct. 4, 1947, the United States, along with the rest of the world, was only beginning to realize the enormity of the effects of the Second World War. In the U.S., its consequences on the millions of young men who had served in both military and civilian capacities were immediate and far-reaching.
During the war’s waning months and for several years afterward, many returning U.S. servicemen were able to take advantage of the new G.I. Bill of Rights to earn college degrees. Some of them chose to major in the geosciences and/or engineering, with a lot of those opting to aim their education at the petroleum industry. The industry’s activity, supercharged during the war by the tremendous military demand for motor fuels and other petroleum products, continued at a high pitch as the burgeoning postwar economy signaled a long period of prosperity, driven largely by cheap energy.
It was made to order: Automobile production skyrocketed and they were readily available and relatively inexpensive; newly subdivided acreage mushroomed across the country as the GI Bill also made housing more affordable for veterans; and overall, Americans felt good about pursuing many of the finer things in life that had been denied them during the ensuing 15 or so years of a global economic depression followed by the war. In fact, the petroleum industry played a major role in making it all possible.
‘Puff, puff, puff until you smoke yourself to death’
The year 1947 was a vigorous one across many levels of the American experience. Popular music played by an unprecedented number of new radio stations included songs like “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)” by Tex Williams; “Dance, Ballerina, Dance!” by Vaughn Monroe, and “Too Fat Polka” by Arthur Godfrey, to name only a few. Meanwhile, on Broadway, plays likeBrigadoon, Finian’s Rainbow and High Button Shoes- all musicals - opened for what became long runs. In Hollywood, Gentleman’s Agreement, featuring Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and John Garfield, won the Academy Award for the year’s Best Picture, edging out Miracle on 34 starring Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwenn and a little girl named Natalie Wood.
In the headlines, October 1947 was a particularly “newsy” month. On the 2nd, New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra became the first baseball player to pinch-hit a home run in the World Series (the Yankees went on to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4 games to 3). On the 5th, Harry S. Truman made the first televised Presidential address from the White House. On the 14th, Chuck Yeager reached supersonic speed (Mach1.015) in the Bell XS-1. One week later, on October 20, in Washington, D.C., the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings to investigate alleged communist influence in Hollywood, which eventually led to the jailing of the Hollywood Ten and the infamous 20-year movie studio “black list.” On a lighter note that same day, however, the quiz show “You Bet Your Life,” starring Groucho Marx, premiered on ABC Radio, and then went on to became a long-running program on television.
But the consequences of the Oct. 4, 1947 offshore well completion created an ever-widening ripple effect that’s as powerful today, 60 years later, as it was then. While it signaled the beginning of an industry whose rapid technology development moved from the Gulf’s shallow waters to all Seven Seas in only a few short years, it also helped to extend the Petroleum Age far beyond what some experts had envisioned. In fact, today’s discoveries of new reserves beneath deep water - thousands of feet of it - along with deeper drilling in previously developed fields in much shallower water, are helping prove that petroleum will continue to fuel the world economy for years to come. Meanwhile, efforts continue toward optional energy sources, including hydrogen-based alternatives, which hopeful scientists aim to develop into practical, widely available fuel feedstocks.
Trade press acknowledges oil’s history
A great deal of the responsibility for keeping the significance of that first offshore well alive fell naturally to the petroleum industry trade press, which celebrates many of the industry’s milestones. This magazine, along with numerous other oil industry publications, honored the offshore segment’s 50th anniversary a decade ago, in 1997.
Another industry element, however - a relative newcomer compared to the trade magazines - was founded fewer than 20 years ago on the principle of keeping the offshore industry’s history alive, and it has continued to make significant strides in that effort. It’s the Offshore Energy Center (OEC), based in Houston, and its own history is similarly noteworthy.
In 1989, a group of petroleum industry executives met in a downtown office to found the OEC. Their goals were to expand the awareness of the world’s vast subsea energy resources and to chronicle the industry’s unique heritage and technological accomplishments. Ultimately, to reach these goals the OEC combined an offshore drilling rig-based facility in Galveston, Texas - theOcean Star Rig and Education Center - with official recognition of major contributors to offshore history as members of a special Offshore Pioneers Hall of Fame. A comprehensive educational outreach program for students, teachers and the general public completed the organization’s immediate objectives.
Since that time, hundreds of thousands of people have toured theOcean Star at its permanent mooring at Pier 19 in Galveston. Additionally, some 60 Industry Pioneers and more than 150 Technology Pioneers have been inducted into the OEC’s Hall of Fame.
In keeping with the OEC’s commitment to the industry’s rich history, most of the newly appointed Hall of Fame Pioneers still living were interviewed in depth by official historians and their testimony recorded for posterity on both audio and video tape. Such recollections have and will continue to provide insight into the industry from its beginnings in 1947 and beyond.
In 2003, the OEC commissioned the writing of the first of a two- to three-volume history of the offshore industry, with much of the content based on Pioneers’ reflections on their lives and times. The volume, entitledPioneering Offshore: The Early Years, was authored by award-winning petroleum journalist F. Jay Schempf. PennWell Custom Publishing, Houston, who were chosen by OEC to publish their book, released it for distribution in September.
The following is a special editorial section dealing with the offshore petroleum industry’s 60th anniversary. It is made up of sections that discuss many of today’s highly advanced offshore technologies, which are then contrasted with accounts of the early development of the tools and practices that advanced offshore drilling, production and transportation technologies - and the experiences of the men and women who helped create them. (Excerpts from the book, set in different type, are included when relevant.)
