Because the booms of Louisiana and Arkansas started at the
beginning of the twentieth century, their oil scenes were vividly recorded by
the camera. Therefore, there is a well
documented visual history of one of America's greatest oil rushes - a boom which
in many ways revolutionized the world's petroleum industry through the
development of new drilling techniques opening vast new horizons to further
development.
Freebooters stalking Spanish galleons along the coast of
Louisiana little realized that beneath their keels was a petroleum prize of
greater value than all the gold and silver ever taken out of the New World.
Knowledge of oil’s potential and inept attempts to bring it
forth from the earth made the viscous substance more of a nuisance than a
boon. However, when Edwin Drake (whom we
wrote about in the June issue) brought in that landmark first commercial oil
well in Titusville, PA, the real value of crude became not only apparent but
critical.
Pronounced an excellent candidate for refining into kerosene,
Louisiana oil would receive a start.
But, with the outbreak of the Civil War and the need to make the state
self - sufficient, its importance was kicked up a notch. Louisiana Governor Henry Allen, requested a
report on the state's mineral deposits and oil springs in the Calcasieu
region. When it was determined and
reported those petroleum deposits alone could become a major source of oil for
the entire Confederacy, excitement ran high.
However, the war came to an end and it was recommended that
the Calcasieu region be leased to oil men and all the revenue acquired from
doing so be used to retire Louisiana's war debt. This proved to be no easy task, as Northern
businessmen were hesitant to invest in a state that had fought for the
Confederacy so development was at a standstill.
Then in 1895, a young mining engineer named Anthony Lucas
poked around a bit on the salt dome around Jefferson Island and while he found
"show", the shortage of capital caused him to abandon his quest. Discouraged with Louisiana, Lucas moved off to Beaumont, Texas. And, if you have been following these
articles you know what happened there.
Lucas hit the Spindletop in 1901 and in doing so rejuvenated the
interest of others in his previously abandoned Louisiana test wells.
In 1901, the Jennings strike hit in a big way in the same
general region where Escoubas and Lowell had searched four decades previously
and Lucas had gone broke looking.
As we have seen from every story we have told from the old
oil patch, the rush and subsequent "boom" was immediate. Louisiana was pushed into the forefront of
the nation's oil-producing areas. For 45
years, Louisiana never ranked lower than 8th among the oil-producing states and
on more than one occasion rose as high as 3rd.
The Louisiana black gold discovery spawned a search for
crude in southern Arkansas. El Dorado,
Smackover and Magnolia quickly joined in with their own producing fields. And even though Arkansas' boom wasn't
apparent until the early 20s, it produced enough barrels of petroleum to rank
the state 4th in the nation's oil producing states in 1923, 1925 and 1926.
Within 45 years of the start of production at Jennings, the
oil area of Louisiana and southern Arkansas would produce billions of dollars'
worth of rich crude. Throughout their
boom era, 1901 through 1947, the two areas combined to produce $3,202,912,000
worth of oil coming at a rate of 1,720,600 barrels of oil every twenty four
hours.
Then, the boom began to ebb in 1947 only to re-spark a new
era with the completion of the first offshore well out of sight of land. That innovation opened the new frontier of
oil exploration for the oil men.
- source...Early Louisiana and Arkansas Oil by Kenny Franks
and Paul Lambert
Blogger's Note—research for this article led me to
information from 2011 on the Smackover Brown Dense Formation which seems to
have some potential to re-energize oil exploration in Southern Arkansas and
Northern Louisiana.
The Smackover Formation can be found to the north of the
Haynesville Shale play. In the middle of the Smackover you find the thick brown
dense formation that has the potential to hold vast amounts of oil. And, even below the Brown Dense, you have the
Lower Smackover Shale which is also of great potential.
Because of the production emanating from Bakken, Eagle Ford,
Niobrara, Barnett, Tuscaloosa Marine, Permian and Woodford, several companies
are moving rigs into the area with Southwestern Energy emerging as the big
player in the field.
According to an August 3, 2012 Southwestern Energy report
they currently have several wells “shut-in” for testing. Read more about the Brown Dense Shale here:
