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Jan-Feb 1990 +,++,+,+,,+,,+,,,+,,, TThE8H ++,,++++,++,,,+++,,,+,,++, EnerevQcoufces +++,,+++,+++,,+,+,,,+,++,+ 1890. At a meeting in an of- fice above a hardware store in Santa Paula, executives of three oil companies (Hardison 1885. Stcwart reasons that & Stcwart, Sespe, and Torrey 1883. Pennsylvania oil man drilling costs can be drastical- Canyon) merge their opera- Lyman Stewart (above) comes ly cut by burning oil just up tions to form Union Oil Com- west to look for "black gold" from the well to heat drilling- pany of California. in California. Stcwart and rig boilers. His innovation 1902. Union discoveries in partner Wallace L. Hardison catches on. Coal-fired boilers 1892. Union Oil crude pro- the Santa Maria, I.ompoc, (right) open an office in New- quickly disappear from the oil duction increases to 180,000 Kern River and Coalinga areas hall, 25 miles northwest of field as the use of fuel oil barrels-more than half of Cal- prompt the building of a new downtown I.os Angeles. becomes widcsprcad. ifornia's total for the year. refinery in Bakersfield. 1884. After drilling seven dry 1888. The Hardison & Stew- 1900. Union establishes the 1904. Union's Hartncll #1 holes in Southern California art Oil Company, now incor- first petroleum geology depart- well in the Santa Maria field, and nearly going broke, Har- porated and based in Santa ment in the West. Under the dubbed "Old Maud," strikes dison and Stewart strike their Paula, makes a major oil dis- supervision of william Orcutt, oil. The discovery results from first oil in Pico Canyon near covery at nearby Adams Can- the department discovers and one of the most fortuitous Ncwhall. The well, Star #1, yon. Crude bursts out of the maps many of California's mistakes in California oil comes in at I,620 feet with casing pipe at Adams Canyon great oil fields. history. When a heavy piece of production of 30 barrels a day. #16, spewing oil loo fcct equipment falls off a transport into the air. Califorma's first wagon short of the intended gusher flows at the unheard well site, the crew decides to of rate of 800 barrels a day. spud in there. Old Maud produces a million barrels of crude in the first loo days. 1905. Drilling superinten- 1921. The company's produc- 1926. Union researchers suc- dent Fra]ik F. Hill makes oil tion for the year sets a new cessfully employ a new "gas- industry history when hc record-9.8 million barrels. lift" enhanced oil rccovcry perfects an oil well cementing 1917. Union crews begin ex- In November, a Union crew method. The technique-in- process. By cemcnting the ploratory drilling in Mexico drilling east of Los Angeles volving the reinj.ection of natu- space between the casing and on a 16,000-acre lease grant- discovers oil. The Santa Fe ral gas into producing forma- the walls of a hole, water is ed by the Mexican govern- Springs field (above) goes on tions-helps maintain reservoir prevented from flowing into ment. The venture is Union's to become one of union's top pressures, permitting increased wells, allowing deeper drilling first international exploratlon producers. Discoveries are also oil production in the com- and bcttcr recovery. effort. made in Wyoming and Texas. pany's older fields. 1910. Union Oil drillers strike 1920. The automobile age is 1923. Oil production by 1929. Pure Oil (later to mcrgc the "world's grcatcst gusher" in full swing in California, Union rcachcs 18.7 million with Union) enters a unitJza- at the Lakeview #1 well near with more than one-half mil- barrels (51,000 per day)- tion agreement for the Van, Taft, California. The gusher lion cars registered. To help making the company the big- Texas, oil field, located about roars for 18 months, spewing meet the booming demand gest producer based in the 70 miles east of Dallas. The out an average of 50,000 bar- for gasoline and asphalt western U.S. agreement, which becomes an rels per day in a 200-foot (nccded for road construc- industry model, designates high, 20-foot wide stream. To tion), Union steps up cxplora- Pure as field operator. Other contain this torrent of oil, tion efforts. The company parti€s receive production Union workers dam up the owns or leases nearly 275,000 shares proportional to their canyon beneath the well and acres of proven or potential lease holdings. create a 16-acre reservoir. The oil lands in California, Texas, highest-volume gusher ever Wyommg and Mexico. seen in the U.S., Lakeview helps California become the nation's number one oil-pro- ducing state. EL'=Dunto®F.¥an#g:W# A-i. edrfu 'Pn'inue8 !o Gth 1939. Union opens an explo- ration office in Houston as part of the company's expand- ing search for oil. Managed by veteran geologist Sam Grinsfelder (left), the office 1942. Umon's work along focuses on Gulf Coast pros- the Gulf Coast continues to 1945. Company exploration- pects. The first well Union pay Off. New discoveries are ists discover the Sansinena drills on the Gulf Coast stnkes made in the Freshwater Bayou field east of whittier, Califor- 1934. The company's pro- oil at East White Lake, Ijouisi- and Vinton fields in Louisi- nia. The new field augments ducing oil wells top the I,000 ana. By 1989, more than 25 ana. Under the pressure of Union's extensive Southern mark. These include the percent of the company's do- wartime demands, the com- California reserves. world's deepest well to date, mestic oil production and over pany boosts the yield from an ll,377-foot hole in Kern 55 percent of its gas will come Gulf Coast fields nearly five- 1949. Uhion's Canadian County, California. from Gulf area operations. fold in a single year. Division is organized. 1937. I'urc and co-vcnturcr 1940. Union Oil Company of 1944. Union buys the Glacier 1949. Union buys the I.os Superior Oil drill the world's CaLifornia marks its 50th anni- Production Company of Nietos Company-as well as first open-water well in the versary, embarking on an am- Montana, acquiring 90,000 the production from several Gulf of Mexico. Dubbed the bitious modernization and ex- acres of properties. Overall, lcascs in California's San Gulf of Mexico State #1, the pansion program under Prcsi- Union gains 2,700 barrels of |oaquin Valley-from the weu is located more than a dcnt Reese H. Taylor. crude a day from 172 wells. family of former board mem- mile from the Ijouisiana shore. ber Edward L. Doheny. The purchases up Union's daily production by 13,500 barrels. _ '-I_ + ---. _- i----- I--: ---- __i?--`- ` -ir`---. -i:===-r:.,-.., _i,---,zt:*,jS-,.i J,,`,fist,qti``€ i 1950. Union purchases 1953. Union teams with three 1954. Union discovers the United Geophysical Company other oil companies to convert East Lake Palourde field in of Pasadena. The acquisition a huge freight barge into Cal- Ijouisiana bayou country. 1959. Umon and a co-ven- provides company cxploration- ifomia's first offshore drilling Other Gulf aj.ca discoveries turer discover the first natural ists with the latest seismologi- rigndubbed CUSS I. It later quickly follow, making Umon gas field in Alaska, located cal expertise to map under- drills a total of 300,000 feet one of the largest oil produc- beneath the Kenal Peninsula, ground formations. of exploratory holes. ers on the Gulf Coast. 80 miles south of Anchorage. 1952. A new deep well in Cal- 1953. Union's first Canadian 1956. A Union Oil wildcat 1960. The company partici- ifomia's Torrey Canyon field oil strike is made at Fairydell well drilled offshore I.ousiana pates for the first time in a fcd- (below), one of Union's oldest, in western Alberta. Three blows out and the platform is cral lease sale covering tracts produces 526 barrels of oil a years later, the company's abandoned. A new platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Two day. About 9,000 feet deep, northernmost discovery, Red and derrick are crccted in re- major oil finds result from the well proves that deep dril- Earth 12-17, comes in with cord time-37 days-to driu tracts that Union acquires: ling can sometimcs vc an I,000 baJ-rels a day of high- a relief well that intersects the Ship Shoal Block 208 and old field a new lease on life. gravity crude. The oil strike wildcat-dubbed "Wild Tiger" South Marsh Island Block 49. Later deep wells in the area starts one of the greatest land -below the surface. Crews arc cvcn bigger producers. rushes in Canadian history. stop the escaping gas by pouring mud, water and ce- ~,i ment down the relief well. Union's discovery, the Vermil- ion field, goes on to become one of the Gulf of Mexico's biggest producers. G U LF O F M E X IC O -+ 1965. Union merges with 1965. Union and four other Illinois-based Pure Oil Com- oil companies participate in 1961. Umon and two co- pany. The merger lifts Union the offshore development of vcnturers drill a 5,800-foot from regional status to that of the East Wilmington field, deep discovery well in Aus- a national oil company with which extends westward from tralia's Moonic field. The find 1962. Union purchases the operations in 37 states. underneath I.ong Beach, Cali- represents the first commercial properties of Texas National fornia. To maintain the coast- oil discovery in Australia. Pctrolcum, adding 430 oil 1965. Union forms a Gcother- line's aesthetics, the develop- and gas wells and 350,000 mal Division under Dr.
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