Today we drill into that
seemingly endless lake of oil called the Permian Basin.
The Permian Basin has the
distinction of being recognized as the most productive petroleum producing
region in the Continental United States.
Located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico it underlies an area
slightly larger than the state of Indiana.
A down warped area eventually covered by the Permian Sea, it continued
through much of the Permian period and consequently contains one of the
thickest deposits of Permian rock found anywhere. Structurally, a basin in the subsurface, much
of it lies underneath the Llano Estacado.
When the Spanish Conquistador,
Francisco Coronado spied the huge Caprock Escarpment which caused him to dub
the area the "Palisaded Plains" or the more commonly known
"staked plains", he had no idea of the wealth waiting below that vast
sea of grass.
His written account of the area
was pretty descriptive...."I reached some plains so vast that I did not
find their limit anywhere I went, although I traveled over them for more than
300 leagues...with no more land marks than if we had been swallowed up by the
sea....there was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor tree, nor shrub,
nor anything to go by." Later
explorers such as Randolph Marcy in 1852 found no argument with Coronado's
statement.
One of the richest fields of the
Permian Basin was owned by Ira and Ann Yates.
The Yates’ had swapped a thriving general store for a sprawling ranch in
Pecos County and were starting to regret that decision. The land was too poor to sustain enough
cattle or sheep to be profitable and they were having a difficult time paying
the mortgage and taxes on their property.
On a hunch, Ira Yates invited Transcontinental Oil Company to come
exploring.
In 1926, an exploratory well was drilled into
the San Andres formation of the Permian Basin lying beneath the Yates ranch. At
approximately 1,000 feet it "gushed" a spew of crude oil into the
air. With no way to contain the spew,
the crew dammed a nearby draw building a crude holding pond for their oil.
Punching away, other wells were
showing impressive strikes and Yates and the oilmen knew they had a significant
find.
However, just as it happened in
other fields in this period of time, oil production facilities and
transportation infrastructure were lacking.
But the richness of the Yates Field spurred Humble Pipe Line Co. to
hurriedly construct a 55,000 barrel storage tank which proved to be woefully
inadequate.
The first five wells drilled on
the Yates Field together produced an average of 9,009 barrels a day which was
more than could be stored or moved. A
sixth well blew out due to extreme gas pressure and 500 barrels of oil a day
blew through the damaged well onto the ground, pooling in nearby canyons. Most of that "blow out" oil was
recovered by damming the canyons and sucking it up with pumps.
In 1929 the spudding of the Yates 30-A blew out with the spectacular flow of 8,528 barrels per hour - over
200,00 in a day setting a world record.
The high production rate of the
Yates field coupled with lack of storage and transport caused the State of
Texas Railroad Commission to step in and require a proration of the field for
the first time in Texas history.
The Railroad Commission's right to oversee
petroleum production gave them the power to require all operators be given an
equal share in the pipeline outlet based on their wells’ total field production. Additionally, the RCC restricted the depth
operators could drill into the cavernous reservoir which gave each of them an
equal advantage.
Naturally as it happened in all
big oil strikes, an instant boomtown was born around the red barn on the Yates
Ranch and given the name Redbarn. This
early town was located about 3 miles south of present day Iraan, TX (pronounced
Eye-ruh-ann - a compilation of the names of Ira and Ann Yates.) The early boomtown of Redbarn, whose
permanent population was never more than 75 was abandoned in 1952 giving Iraan unchallenged
bragging rights to the history of the Yates Field in the Permian Basin area.
According to the Railroad Commission of
Texas' website, there were 355 active rigs in the Permian Basin in 2011. It states, “The Permian Basin remains a
significant oil-producing area, producing more than 270 million barrels of oil
in 2010 and more than 280 million barrels in 2011. The Permian Basin has
produced over 30 billion barrels of oil and 75 trillion cubic feet of gas and
it is estimated by industry experts to contain recoverable oil and natural gas
resources exceeding what has been produced over the last 90 years. Recent
increased use of enhanced-recovery practices in the Permian Basin has produced
a substantial impact on U.S. oil production.”
