Special Anniversary - The history of offshore: developing the E&P infrastructure
F. Jay Schempf
F. Jay Schempf
Special Correspondent
Editor's Note: This is the first in a three-part history of the offshore industry. The second part, to appear in the August issue, will examine the state of the art in key technology. The third of the series, to appear in December, will review recent offshore developments and provide a look ahead.
It was almost incidental to the worldwide petroleum industry that drillers took exploration and production from dry land out into open water.
Just after World War II, oil companies operating in the United States were seeking fresh drilling prospects with high reserves potential. For nearly 50 years, exploration drilling had proceeded at a high pitch, and by the mid-1940s, it seemed as if most of the "good" onshore acreage already had been leased.
A number of companies reasoned that oil fields that extended to the coastline might reach out beneath the Gulf of Mexico. If so, they could be tapped from offshore, where plenty of leases were available – at bargain prices. Onshore geophysical equipment had been modified to allow producers to obtain fundamental reflection seismic records over water, and early marine surveys indicated that classic piercement-type salt domes – around which many onshore oil accumulations could be found – were numerous offshore.
Several attempts to develop Gulf of Mexico oil had been made before the war, most of them unsuccessful. One operation, however, spearheaded in 1937 by Pure Oil Co. and partner Superior Petroleum, did pay off. It was conducted on a 33,000-acre state offshore lease near the town of Creole in Calcasieu Parish about 20 mi east of Cameron, Louisiana. The companies built a 30,000-sq-ft wooden platform in 14 ft of water. Though the platform was erected less than a mile from dry land, its mere existence set a record for both platform size and water depth for the Gulf.
Using a land-type drilling rig assembled on the platform's deck, Pure-Magnolia's first well, drilled to a depth of 9,400 ft, produced commercial quantities of oil. The partners expanded the platform's size, and using directional drilling techniques, subsequently completed 10 more wells. At the time, drilling was conducted only during the day, with crews returning to shore as evening fell, traveling aboard leased shrimp boats and other locally based vessels.
Ultimately this operation, whose oil was transported to shore in tank storage barges, was christened the Creole field. It continued to produce for more than 30 years, yielding nearly 4 MMbbl of oil and proving early on that offshore E&P could be a highly lucrative enterprise.
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Kermac Rig 16 was the first platform built outside the sight of land in the US Gulf of Mexico in 1947. The platform was also the first to have a tender vessel. Note the shrimp trawler to the left used to ferry workers and supplies. (Photo courtesy Tidewater and Kerr-McGee)
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The most important historical aspect of the Creole platform was that its discovery well was the first oil producer ever drilled from a fixed platform in the Gulf.
Starting the offshore transition
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Page 1 of 17
Volume 64 Issue 1
January 2004
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