Goose Creek Oil Field
Encyclopedia
The Goose Creek Oil Field is a large oil field
in Baytown, Texas
, on Galveston Bay
. Discovered in 1903, and reaching maximum production in 1918 after a series of spectacular gusher
s, it was one of the fields which contributed to the Texas Oil Boom
of the early 20th century. The field was also the location of the first offshore wells
in Texas, and the second group of offshore wells in the United States. Consequences of the development of the Goose Creek field included an economic boom and associated influx of workers, the founding and fast growth of Baytown, and the building of the adjacent Baytown Refinery
, which is now the largest oil refinery in the United States. The field remains active, having produced over 150 Moilbbl of oil in its 100-year history.
The Goose Creek field is also the first place where subsidence
of overlying terrain was attributed to the removal of oil from underneath. On the Goose Creek field, subsidence has damaged houses, roads, and businesses, and much of the oil field which was on land in the early years of its development is now submerged in Tabbs Bay. Subsidence-induced motion along fault
s on the field also caused the only earthquake of local origin ever felt in the Houston area.
, at the point where Goose Creek exits to the sea. It is directly south of the city of Baytown, and about 25 miles (40.2 km) east of downtown Houston
. Elevations on the field range from approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) at the highest well locations next to developed parts of Baytown, on the north side of the field, to submerged and partially submerged areas within Tabbs Bay itself. Much of the field is close to sea level. The total productive area of the field, including the submerged portion, is approximately 3470 acres (14 km²).
Alexander Drive, a spur of Texas State Highway 146
, runs through the field. West of Goose Creek it rejoins Highway 146 to go over Tabbs Bay on the Fred Hartman Bridge
.
underneath a deep salt dome
, one of several such fields in the Gulf of Mexico
region. It was the first oil field to be found in a deep rather than a shallow salt dome, and its discovery led to the search for others like it; the finds that resulted were some of the largest oil fields in the United States. The sedimentary
layers over the dome are themselves arched into a shape conforming to the underlying dome, so the structure forms a perfect trap for hydrocarbons which would otherwise migrate to the surface. The field contains 30 separate pools or producing horizons, ranging in depth from 800 to 4500 feet (1,371.6 m). The oil-bearing strata under the salt dome consist of porous sands with some interspersed clay.
The Goose Creek field is the first place where subsidence
of the land over the oil field was definitively attributed to the extraction of petroleum. Subsidence over the Goose Creek field is well documented and particularly dramatic; parts of the field which were once above-water are now wholly or partially submerged, and the area of subsidence almost exactly conforms to the boundary of the productive region. The connection between extraction and subsidence was first recognized by geologists W.E. Pratt and D.W. Johnson, who published their findings in a 1926 paper. By this year, after about ten years of active pumping, most of the productive area of the field had subsided three feet, and the submerging of the facilities had already become obvious to field operators.
Along with the subsidence, surface faulting
has been observed, and motion along these faults – although minimal compared to motion along faults in areas in which the seismic activity is due to tectonic forces – has been sufficient to damage buildings and be felt in the local area. One of the faults in the Goose Creek area, first observed in 1925, shows a vertical displacement of 0.4 meter, along a length of over 700 meters.
Subsidence of land due to either oil or groundwater extraction is now widely recognized, and the Gulf Coast is one of many places in the world in which it has become a serious problem. In the present day, oil fields underneath sensitive areas, such as cities, are usually re-pressurized with water or gas to prevent the land above them from collapsing into the vacated space.
gas coming up in the shallow water along the shoreline of Galveston Bay alerted early prospectors in 1903 to the possibility of an oil field in the area. The first attempts to develop the field followed shortly, but none of the wells produced economic quantities of oil; indeed it was not until 1908 that oil was found at all, and the Producers Oil Company drilled 20 separate times in a failed attempt to create a well that flowed sufficiently to turn a profit. The American Petroleum Company had better luck, and their 8000 barrels (1,271.9 m³)-per-day gusher on August 23, 1916 brought in the field. The subsequent fast influx of workers and equipment engendered a pair of boomtowns – Pelly and Goose Creek – adjacent to the field. In 1917 Ross S. Sterling
, president of Humble Oil Company
, chose to build a refinery on vacant land just northwest of the oil field, reorganizing his firm as the Humble Oil and Refining Company
in order to accomplish the task. Humble Oil would go on to become Exxon
, and the Baytown Refinery would eventually become the largest refinery in the United States. In addition, in 1919 Sterling arranged for the construction of Baytown on land adjacent to his new refinery.
High oil prices also fueled the field's fast development. The First World War had caused a run-up in the price, which reached $1.35 per barrel by 1917. During that year the average well was producing over 1000 oilbbl/d, and the biggest gusher also occurred during 1917 – a well drilled by the Simms-Sinclair Company which spewed 35000 oilbbl/d, remaining out of control for several days.
The Goose Creek Oil Field was the location of the first offshore wells in Texas. They were drilled in shallow water from piers like the ones in on the Summerland field
in Summerland, California
twenty years before, which were the first in the world. Due to subsidence
many of the wells which were originally on land are now wholly or partially submerged.
Because of the sinking of the land containing the field, the State of Texas sued the Humble Oil Co. for rights to the field, as technically the field had ceased to be on land but had joined the state water bottomlands, which were not subject to private ownership. Along with title to the field and the various private parcels within it, the State sought to collect the revenues from oil and gas produced since the land went underwater. The State lost the suit, with the court ruling that the subsidence was caused by the extraction of oil, and was therefore an "act of Man" rather than a natural event. Humble Oil continued to produce from the field.
Parts of the field have subsided nine feet from the original ground surface elevation since production began, while subsidence in adjacent Baytown has reached approximately six feet. Not all of the subsidence in the field and adjacent areas is due to oil withdrawal; some is from pumping of groundwater
from water wells.
Peak production of the field had been reached by 1918, before the street grid for Baytown had even been drawn up. In that year the field produced 8923635 barrels (1,418,744.6 m³) of oil (more than the current estimated recoverable reserve). Some of the infrastructure improvements built during this year were the railroad connecting the oil field to the site of the future refinery, and pipelines crossing under the bay connecting storage tanks to the mainland. On May 24, 1919, a tropical storm destroyed over 1,450 of the flimsy wooden oil derricks erected on the field. After the production peak in 1918, field output began a slow decline, dropping from the high of 25000 oilbbl/d in 1918 to only 1,100 in 1943. Production increased again in the 1960s with the development of water injection technologies, but then began falling off as the field became depleted.
The field's major operators in 1984 were Exxon
, Gulf Oil
, Mobil
, Monsanto
, Coastal, and Enderli Oil. Many of the major oil companies began divesting their onshore operations in the U.S. around this time, selling them to independents, as opportunities overseas became more attractive. The field changed hands several times, going to Wood Energy Corp. in 1996, and then to Texas American Resources in 1999. They operated the field until 2006, at which time Bakersfield, California
-based Foothills-Resources bought the field. Foothills immediately began a remapping and 3D-seismic survey program to identify new development opportunities. At this time the daily production from the field was around 820 barrels (130.4 m³) of oil per day; Foothills-Resources claimed that the field retained 5.1 Moilbbl of proven reserves. In late 2007 they put in new wells, but the entire field was shut down for two weeks in September 2008 due to Hurricane Ike
, the eye of which passed directly over the field, and destroyed or damaged considerable oil and gas infrastructure in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. In spite of the direct hit by Ike, and the field being right at sea level or in shallow water, subject to storm surge, little long-term damage occurred; nevertheless the field was inoperative for two weeks. On February 11, 2009, Foothills filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the bankruptcy court for Delaware.
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
in Baytown, Texas
Baytown, Texas
Baytown is a city within Harris County and partially in Chambers County in the Gulf Coast region of the U.S. state of Texas. Located within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area, it lies along both State Highway 146 and Interstate 10. As of 2010, Baytown had an population of 71,802...
, on Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay is a large estuary located along the upper coast of Texas in the United States. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropic marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the Bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water which supports a wide...
. Discovered in 1903, and reaching maximum production in 1918 after a series of spectacular gusher
Blowout (well drilling)
A blowout is the uncontrolled release of crude oil and/or natural gas from an oil well or gas well after pressure control systems have failed....
s, it was one of the fields which contributed to the Texas Oil Boom
Texas Oil Boom
The Texas Oil Boom, sometimes called the Gusher Age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas...
of the early 20th century. The field was also the location of the first offshore wells
Offshore drilling
Offshore drilling refers to a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled through the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently produce hydrocarbons which lie in rock formations beneath the seabed...
in Texas, and the second group of offshore wells in the United States. Consequences of the development of the Goose Creek field included an economic boom and associated influx of workers, the founding and fast growth of Baytown, and the building of the adjacent Baytown Refinery
Baytown Refinery
ExxonMobil's Baytown Refinery in Baytown, Texas is the largest oil refinery in the United States, with an input capacity of per day as of June 1, 2010. The site first opened in 1919 and was originally operated by the Humble Oil Company. Today, it is the largest employer in the city...
, which is now the largest oil refinery in the United States. The field remains active, having produced over 150 Moilbbl of oil in its 100-year history.
The Goose Creek field is also the first place where subsidence
Subsidence
Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...
of overlying terrain was attributed to the removal of oil from underneath. On the Goose Creek field, subsidence has damaged houses, roads, and businesses, and much of the oil field which was on land in the early years of its development is now submerged in Tabbs Bay. Subsidence-induced motion along fault
Geologic fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of tectonic forces...
s on the field also caused the only earthquake of local origin ever felt in the Houston area.
Setting
The Goose Creek field is located along the northern shoreline of Tabbs Bay, an arm of Galveston BayGalveston Bay
Galveston Bay is a large estuary located along the upper coast of Texas in the United States. It is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by sub-tropic marshes and prairies on the mainland. The water in the Bay is a complex mixture of sea water and fresh water which supports a wide...
, at the point where Goose Creek exits to the sea. It is directly south of the city of Baytown, and about 25 miles (40.2 km) east of downtown Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. Elevations on the field range from approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) at the highest well locations next to developed parts of Baytown, on the north side of the field, to submerged and partially submerged areas within Tabbs Bay itself. Much of the field is close to sea level. The total productive area of the field, including the submerged portion, is approximately 3470 acres (14 km²).
Alexander Drive, a spur of Texas State Highway 146
Texas State Highway 146
State Highway 146, or SH 146, is a north–south highway in southeastern Texas beginning in Livingston, starting at US 59 and proceeds south to Liberty, where it meets US 90...
, runs through the field. West of Goose Creek it rejoins Highway 146 to go over Tabbs Bay on the Fred Hartman Bridge
Fred Hartman Bridge
The Fred Hartman Bridge or Baytown Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge in the U.S. state of Texas, spanning the Houston Ship Channel. The bridge carries 2.6 miles of State Highway 146, between the cities of Baytown, Texas and La Porte, Texas...
.
Geology
The oil field is an accumulation of petroleumPetroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
underneath a deep salt dome
Salt dome
A salt dome is a type of structural dome formed when a thick bed of evaporite minerals found at depth intrudes vertically into surrounding rock strata, forming a diapir....
, one of several such fields in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked 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 States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
region. It was the first oil field to be found in a deep rather than a shallow salt dome, and its discovery led to the search for others like it; the finds that resulted were some of the largest oil fields in the United States. The sedimentary
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
layers over the dome are themselves arched into a shape conforming to the underlying dome, so the structure forms a perfect trap for hydrocarbons which would otherwise migrate to the surface. The field contains 30 separate pools or producing horizons, ranging in depth from 800 to 4500 feet (1,371.6 m). The oil-bearing strata under the salt dome consist of porous sands with some interspersed clay.
The Goose Creek field is the first place where subsidence
Subsidence
Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...
of the land over the oil field was definitively attributed to the extraction of petroleum. Subsidence over the Goose Creek field is well documented and particularly dramatic; parts of the field which were once above-water are now wholly or partially submerged, and the area of subsidence almost exactly conforms to the boundary of the productive region. The connection between extraction and subsidence was first recognized by geologists W.E. Pratt and D.W. Johnson, who published their findings in a 1926 paper. By this year, after about ten years of active pumping, most of the productive area of the field had subsided three feet, and the submerging of the facilities had already become obvious to field operators.
Along with the subsidence, surface faulting
Geologic fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of tectonic forces...
has been observed, and motion along these faults – although minimal compared to motion along faults in areas in which the seismic activity is due to tectonic forces – has been sufficient to damage buildings and be felt in the local area. One of the faults in the Goose Creek area, first observed in 1925, shows a vertical displacement of 0.4 meter, along a length of over 700 meters.
Subsidence of land due to either oil or groundwater extraction is now widely recognized, and the Gulf Coast is one of many places in the world in which it has become a serious problem. In the present day, oil fields underneath sensitive areas, such as cities, are usually re-pressurized with water or gas to prevent the land above them from collapsing into the vacated space.
History, operations, and production
Bubbles of methaneMethane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
gas coming up in the shallow water along the shoreline of Galveston Bay alerted early prospectors in 1903 to the possibility of an oil field in the area. The first attempts to develop the field followed shortly, but none of the wells produced economic quantities of oil; indeed it was not until 1908 that oil was found at all, and the Producers Oil Company drilled 20 separate times in a failed attempt to create a well that flowed sufficiently to turn a profit. The American Petroleum Company had better luck, and their 8000 barrels (1,271.9 m³)-per-day gusher on August 23, 1916 brought in the field. The subsequent fast influx of workers and equipment engendered a pair of boomtowns – Pelly and Goose Creek – adjacent to the field. In 1917 Ross S. Sterling
Ross S. Sterling
Ross Shaw Sterling was a U.S. political figure who was the 31st Governor of Texas, having served a single two-year term between January 20, 1931, and January 17, 1933....
, president of Humble Oil Company
Humble Oil
Humble Oil and Refining Co. was founded in 1911. The company would later consolidate with Standard Oil of New Jersey to become Exxon.-Early history:...
, chose to build a refinery on vacant land just northwest of the oil field, reorganizing his firm as the Humble Oil and Refining Company
Humble Oil
Humble Oil and Refining Co. was founded in 1911. The company would later consolidate with Standard Oil of New Jersey to become Exxon.-Early history:...
in order to accomplish the task. Humble Oil would go on to become Exxon
Exxon
Exxon is a chain of gas stations as well as a brand of motor fuel and related products by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to 1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard....
, and the Baytown Refinery would eventually become the largest refinery in the United States. In addition, in 1919 Sterling arranged for the construction of Baytown on land adjacent to his new refinery.
High oil prices also fueled the field's fast development. The First World War had caused a run-up in the price, which reached $1.35 per barrel by 1917. During that year the average well was producing over 1000 oilbbl/d, and the biggest gusher also occurred during 1917 – a well drilled by the Simms-Sinclair Company which spewed 35000 oilbbl/d, remaining out of control for several days.
The Goose Creek Oil Field was the location of the first offshore wells in Texas. They were drilled in shallow water from piers like the ones in on the Summerland field
Summerland Oil Field
The Summerland Oil Field is an inactive oil field in Santa Barbara County, California, about four miles east of the city of Santa Barbara, within and next to the unincorporated community of Summerland...
in Summerland, California
Summerland, California
Summerland is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. The population was 1,448 at the 2010 census, down from 1,545 at the 2000 census.The town includes a school and a Presbyterian Church...
twenty years before, which were the first in the world. Due to subsidence
Subsidence
Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...
many of the wells which were originally on land are now wholly or partially submerged.
Because of the sinking of the land containing the field, the State of Texas sued the Humble Oil Co. for rights to the field, as technically the field had ceased to be on land but had joined the state water bottomlands, which were not subject to private ownership. Along with title to the field and the various private parcels within it, the State sought to collect the revenues from oil and gas produced since the land went underwater. The State lost the suit, with the court ruling that the subsidence was caused by the extraction of oil, and was therefore an "act of Man" rather than a natural event. Humble Oil continued to produce from the field.
Parts of the field have subsided nine feet from the original ground surface elevation since production began, while subsidence in adjacent Baytown has reached approximately six feet. Not all of the subsidence in the field and adjacent areas is due to oil withdrawal; some is from pumping of groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
from water wells.
Peak production of the field had been reached by 1918, before the street grid for Baytown had even been drawn up. In that year the field produced 8923635 barrels (1,418,744.6 m³) of oil (more than the current estimated recoverable reserve). Some of the infrastructure improvements built during this year were the railroad connecting the oil field to the site of the future refinery, and pipelines crossing under the bay connecting storage tanks to the mainland. On May 24, 1919, a tropical storm destroyed over 1,450 of the flimsy wooden oil derricks erected on the field. After the production peak in 1918, field output began a slow decline, dropping from the high of 25000 oilbbl/d in 1918 to only 1,100 in 1943. Production increased again in the 1960s with the development of water injection technologies, but then began falling off as the field became depleted.
The field's major operators in 1984 were Exxon
Exxon
Exxon is a chain of gas stations as well as a brand of motor fuel and related products by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to 1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard....
, Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil
Gulf Oil was a major global oil company from the 1900s to the 1980s. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies...
, Mobil
Mobil
Mobil, previously known as the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, was a major American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil. Today Mobil continues as a major brand name within the combined company, as well as still being a gas station sometimes paired with their own store or On...
, Monsanto
Monsanto
The Monsanto Company is a US-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed in the "Roundup" brand of herbicides, and in other brands...
, Coastal, and Enderli Oil. Many of the major oil companies began divesting their onshore operations in the U.S. around this time, selling them to independents, as opportunities overseas became more attractive. The field changed hands several times, going to Wood Energy Corp. in 1996, and then to Texas American Resources in 1999. They operated the field until 2006, at which time Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
-based Foothills-Resources bought the field. Foothills immediately began a remapping and 3D-seismic survey program to identify new development opportunities. At this time the daily production from the field was around 820 barrels (130.4 m³) of oil per day; Foothills-Resources claimed that the field retained 5.1 Moilbbl of proven reserves. In late 2007 they put in new wells, but the entire field was shut down for two weeks in September 2008 due to Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike
Hurricane Ike was the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba and the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954...
, the eye of which passed directly over the field, and destroyed or damaged considerable oil and gas infrastructure in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. In spite of the direct hit by Ike, and the field being right at sea level or in shallow water, subject to storm surge, little long-term damage occurred; nevertheless the field was inoperative for two weeks. On February 11, 2009, Foothills filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the bankruptcy court for Delaware.