The
East Texas Oil Field is a large
oil and gas fieldA petroleum reservoir or an oil and gas reservoir, is a subsurface pool of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. The naturally occurring hydrocarbons are trapped by overlying rock formations with lower permeability.-Formation:...
in east
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
. Covering 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. It is a component of the
Mid-Continent Oil ProvinceThe Mid-continent Oil Field in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, was discovered and exploited during the first half of the 20th century. It is not a single oil field, but rather a broad area containing hundreds of fields in various geological strata and diverse trap types...
, the huge region of petroleum deposits extending from
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
to
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
to the
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
.
The field includes parts of
GreggGregg County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 111,379. It is named for John Gregg, a Confederate general killed in action during the American Civil War. Its seat is Longview...
, western
RuskRusk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Originally a part of Nacogdoches County, Rusk was established as its own county by the Congress of the Republic of Texas on January 16, 1843. In 2000, its population was 47,372. Its seat is Henderson and it is part of the Longview...
, southern
UpshurUpshur County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 35,291. The county seat is Gilmer. Upshur County is part of the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Longview–Marshall Combined Statistical Area.The county is named for Abel P. Upshur...
, southeastern
SmithSmith County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 174,706 , while in 2007 it was estimated to have reached 198,705. Its county seat is Tyler. Smith county is named for James Smith, a general during the Texas Revolution...
, and northeastern
CherokeeCherokee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It 2000, its population was 46,659. It is named for the Cherokee Native American tribe. The seat of the county is Rusk....
counties in the northeastern part of the state.
The
East Texas Oil Field is a large
oil and gas fieldA petroleum reservoir or an oil and gas reservoir, is a subsurface pool of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. The naturally occurring hydrocarbons are trapped by overlying rock formations with lower permeability.-Formation:...
in east
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
. Covering 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. It is a component of the
Mid-Continent Oil ProvinceThe Mid-continent Oil Field in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, was discovered and exploited during the first half of the 20th century. It is not a single oil field, but rather a broad area containing hundreds of fields in various geological strata and diverse trap types...
, the huge region of petroleum deposits extending from
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
to
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
to the
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
.
The field includes parts of
GreggGregg County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 111,379. It is named for John Gregg, a Confederate general killed in action during the American Civil War. Its seat is Longview...
, western
RuskRusk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Originally a part of Nacogdoches County, Rusk was established as its own county by the Congress of the Republic of Texas on January 16, 1843. In 2000, its population was 47,372. Its seat is Henderson and it is part of the Longview...
, southern
UpshurUpshur County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 35,291. The county seat is Gilmer. Upshur County is part of the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Longview–Marshall Combined Statistical Area.The county is named for Abel P. Upshur...
, southeastern
SmithSmith County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 174,706 , while in 2007 it was estimated to have reached 198,705. Its county seat is Tyler. Smith county is named for James Smith, a general during the Texas Revolution...
, and northeastern
CherokeeCherokee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It 2000, its population was 46,659. It is named for the Cherokee Native American tribe. The seat of the county is Rusk....
counties in the northeastern part of the state. Overall the field is about long on the north-south axis, and five miles (8 km) across.
Interstate 20Interstate 20 is a major east-west Interstate Highway in the southeastern United States. I-20 runs 1,535 miles from near Kent, Texas, at Interstate 10 to Florence, South Carolina, at Interstate 95...
cuts across the field from east to west, and the towns of
KilgoreKilgore is a city in Gregg and Rusk Counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the home of Kilgore College, and was also the childhood home of famous classical pianist Van Cliburn...
,
OvertonOverton is a city in Rusk and Smith Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 2,350 at the 2000 census.Overton lies in two counties as well as two metropolitan areas...
, and
GladewaterGladewater is a city in Gregg and Upshur Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 6,078 at the 2000 census.The town is probably most famous as a base during Elvis Presley's early career , and also as the town in which Johnny Cash wrote Walk the Line...
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.
Geology
The primary productive geologic unit is the
CretaceousThe Cretaceous , Latin language for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
-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 rockIn petroleum geology, source rock refers to rocks from which hydrocarbons have been generated or are capable of being generated. They form one of the necessary elements of a working hydrocarbon system. They are organic rich sediments that may have been deposited in a variety of environments...
for the oil in East Texas is the lower-lying Eagle Ford Shale.
Water intrusion from deeper in Woodbine Formation is the mechanism pushing oil through the reservoir toward the producing wells. A 1932 study showed that oil wells stopped flowing when water pressure dropped below 800 pounds per square inch.
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 ; most early wells ended in broken bits, dry holes, and bankrupt operators. Finally, an enterprising Alabama man,
Columbus Marion (Dad) JoinerColumbus Marion Joiner was an American oilman. With A.D. Lloyd, a self-educated, self-proclaimed geologist, he discovered the largest oil field in the world up to that time, the East Texas oil field, in 1930....
, 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 below ground surface. This well is located near the southeastern boundary of the oil field.
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 . 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. In January 1931, yet another group of investors and drillers put in a third important well about north of the initial Daisy Bradford well; this one gushed of oil per hour, from approximately the same depth as the other two wells – . 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.
It was the enormous quantities of oil from the East Texas Oil Field, and their importance to the Allied effort in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, that led to the creation of the world's largest pipeline until that time, the "
Big InchThe Big Inch and its companion project, the Little Big Inch were petroleum pipelines constructed during 1942 and 1943 as an emergency war measure from Texas to New Jersey. Until World War II, petroleum products had been transported from the oil fields of Texas to the northeastern United States by...
", a , 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 of crude flowed from East Texas to the northeast states through the Big Inch.
In the middle of the twentieth century, the East Texas Oil Field was the center of a slant-hole scandal. Some unscrupulous operators had drilled slanted holes from across their lease lines into the productive portions of the Woodbine formation. Inspectors found 380 deviated wells and shut them down, with the assistance of the
Texas RangersThe Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction based in Austin, the capital of Texas, in the United States...
. An estimated $100 million worth of oil was stolen over several decades from legal owners.
Since its discovery, the East Texas Oil Field has produced more than of oil, and originally contained more than .