Jennings Field
The Birthplace of Louisiana's Oil Industry
IT ALMOST DIDN’T HAPPEN
News of the spectacular oil gusher at Spindletop raced around the world and ignited the imagination of the entire nation. “Oil fever” spread throughout the region. After hearing that the Spindletop discovery was drilled in an area where gas had been observed seeping out of the ground, five Jennings businessmen created “The S.A. Spencer Company” and leased an area surrounding several gas seeps near Jennings that had been known to exist for many years.
The businessmen sent representatives to Beaumont, Texas, to hire an operator who had experience drilling for oil at Spindletop. There they met with W. Scott Heywood and described their Jennings prospect. Heywood was fascinated with their tale and immediately went to Jennings to personally inspect the prospect area, where he became convinced that there was oil underground. In a short time Heywood and the S.A. Spencer Company had organized the Jennings Oil Company and stock was sold to finance drilling the property.
The Jennings Oil Company contracted with Heywood Brothers and Dobbins to drill two exploratory wells, each to a depth of 1000 feet, in the hope of finding oil. Their first location was in a rice field near an area of high land in an otherwise flat prairie. The high ground and associated gas seeps were similar to the area surrounding the Spindletop Field discovery. However, the landowner, Jules Clement, had a change of heart and decided he didn’t want any wells drilled on his property. He padlocked the fence gates and contacted a lawyer to cancel the oil lease. Clement complained that he didn’t want his cattle breaking their legs by falling into the holes. He then explained that he didn’t know what to do with the oil if any was discovered.
Heywood convinced Clement that his fears were unfounded and paid him generously in advance for any damage to his rice crop. Clement agreed to allow the drilling of a well.
After reaching a depth of 1000 feet in the first well with little sign of oil or gas, the contract called for the abandonment of the first well and the drilling of a second well to 1000 feet at another location. After all, 1000 feet had been deep enough to discover the tremendous oil gushers at Spindletop Field. But Heywood believed he needed to drill deeper.
Based on little more than a hunch, W. Scott Heywood convinced his investors, his drilling crew, and his own brothers to drill deeper. Instead of drilling two wells to a depth of 1000 feet each, Heywood persuaded the investors to change the contract to accept a single well drilled to a depth of 1500 feet, or deeper under his advisement. More drilling pipe was brought in and the well deepened. After drilling to 1500 feet in depth, only a small showing of oil had been found for all their time, trouble, and expense. Many investors were bailing out, selling their $1 shares in the venture for as little as 25¢.Heywood’s associates, drilling crew, and even his own brothers were telling him to abandon the well.
Despite the urging of his family, friends and associates, Heywood’s intuition told him to drill still deeper. At the age of 29, W. Scott Heywood was already a seasoned, experienced, and successful explorer. He had gone to Alaska in 1897 during the great Yukon gold rush, sinking a shaft and mining a profitable gold deposit. He was an oil finder, having successfully drilled for oil in California. When news broke of the Spindletop discovery, Heywood was one of the first “oil men” to reach Spindletop, and he drilled a number of the earliest successful oil wells. Heywood came to Jennings at the urging of investors and now he was convinced that the gas seeps were a sure sign of oil. Reluctantly, W. Scott Heywood’s brothers once again agreed to support him in continuing. More drill pipe was delivered and the well was drilled deeper.
While drilling at 1700 feet, with only 4 feet left to go on his last piece of drilling pipe, Heywood drilled into the top of a sand showing good signs of oil. Heywood ordered additional drill pipe to continue drilling through the oil sand. The drill pipe arrived and drilling stopped after penetrating a total of 110 feet of the oil sand. Equipment was ordered to test and cap the well; Heywood had to wait several days for the equipment to arrive.
Finally, on September 21, 1901, the equipment had arrived and the well was ready for testing. The well was bailed to remove the drilling mud and draw oil into the well. Nothing happened. The well was bailed again. Finally, a 4 inch stream of oil came gushing out of the well, spewing oil over 100 feet into the air.
|
ABOUT 1868 --
The Louisiana Oil and Coal Company drilled a well about 15 miles west of Lake Charles in search of oil but was unsuccessful although it did reveal very extensive sulfur deposits.
1870 --
A night watchman at an ice plant in Shreveport accidentally discovered natural gas emanating from a well drilled in search of artesian water when he struck a match. Gas from the well was piped to the plant to provide illumination--the first use in the state of the fuel that today heats the vast majority of Louisiana homes and places of business.
Sept. 21, 1901 --
The Heywood well six miles from Jennings was brought in, producing the first oil discovered in the state in commercial quantities and marking what is recognized as the birth of the industry in the state..
1908 --
The first natural gas pipeline was laid in Louisiana. It brought gas from the Caddo Field to Shreveport.
1909 --
The new refinery in Baton Rouge (which is the Exxon refinery of today) went on stream. Today it is, in terms of capacity, among the largest oil refineries on the North American continent. This is also the year in which construction began on Louisiana's first long-distance oil pipeline, which by 1910 was transporting crude oil from Caddo Parish to the Baton Rouge refinery
ABOUT 1910 --
The first over-water drilling in America occurred on Caddo Lake near Shreveport.
1913 --
A major discovery occurred in Northwest Louisiana when the Bull Bayou Field was brought in.
1916 --
The well resulting in the discovery of the Monroe Gas Field was brought in.
1921 --
The prolific Haynesville Gas Field was discovered.
1940 --
The oil and gas industry came to Central Louisiana in a big way with the discovery of the Olla Field in LaSalle Parish.
1942 --
The Lake St. John Field on the eastern border of Louisiana was discovered.
Nov. 14, 1947 --
The first oil well out of sight of land was brought in by Kerr-McGee in the Gulf of Mexico about 45 miles south of Morgan City in the Ship Shoal Block 32 Field, marking the birth of the offshore oil and gas industry.
1948 --
The Main Pass Field came in near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
1949 --
Three major fields were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. They were the Eugene Island, Bay Marchand and Vermillion Fields.
1954 --
The western boundary of Louisiana's offshore oil and gas industry was established with discovery of the West Cameron Field.
1975 -- Gerald R. Ford became the first President of the United States to visit an offshore oil platform when he came to Louisiana on April 23. His comment: "We just have to get more and more of these."
1982 --
Lease and royalty income paid by the oil and gas industry to the state of Louisiana soared to an all-time record $624,529,812.
1988 --
Bullwinkle, the world's tallest man-made offshore structure, was launched May 21, 1988 by Shell Offshore, Inc. Bullwinkle carried a $500 million price tag and is located approximately 150 miles south of New Orleans.
1989 --
The first tension well leg platform was installed by Conoco in the Gulf of Mexico with production from the platform beginning November 8. The platform floats on the surface of the water and is connected to a foundation template on the sea floor by tubular steel tendons. The platform was placed in 1,760 feet of water, about 170 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Jolliet Field.
1991 --
The search for oil goes further offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell Oil made a deepwater discovery in about 3,100 feet of water, about 130 miles southeast of New Orleans. BP Exploration held an interest in the project. A short time later a second deepwater discovery was announced by Exxon and its project partner Conoco.
1992 -- Oklahoma adopts a natural gas proration statute. Louisiana holds public hearings on the issue, but does not adopt any statute or regulations
1993 -- The Louisiana Legislature, with the support of the Louisiana oil and gas industry, adopts legislation aimed at addressing the issue of orphaned or abandoned wells. The legislation established a fee on all oil and gas produced in the state and provided for a method of establishing voluntary trust funds for each well that would follow the well each time it is sold and be available to cover the cost of properly closing and abandoning the well when it was no longer productive.
1993 --
The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association conducts the first of its kind study regarding the economic impacts of the offshore oil and gas industry. The study Impacts showed that the offshore industry has a positive economic impact on the state of more than $3 billion each year.
1996 --
After more than a decade of depressed prices and activity, the oil and gas industry began to see a rebound. New drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico spurred on by the development of new technology and the overall worldwide demand for oil gave a new push to Louisiana oil and gas production.
1997 --
Record-breaking lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly $1 billion exposed as bids by companies seeking to drill in the Gulf of Mexico, proving that the Gulf of Mexico is not a "dead sea."
1997 --
Louisiana prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of offshore oil and gas exploration and production. The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association celebrates its 75th anniversary as a trade association and pays tribute to the industry's "Remarkable Past and its Exciting Future."
1998 --
A new round of mergers began. BP purchased Amoco, Kerr-McGee purchased Oryx. Exxon and Mobil agreed to a merger that formed the largest company in the United States. Other companies combined downstream operations. New rounds of employee layoffs and consolidations also began.
2001 --
Louisiana celebrates the 100th anniversary of the oil industry in the state.
2007 --
For the first time, 15 rigs are drilling for oil and gas in 5,000 feet of water or greater in the Gulf, the U.S. Minerals Management Service announces. "The continued increase in drilling activity is a show of confidence in the resource potential of the Gulf’s ultra-deepwater frontier," agency Director Randall Luthi says.
|
