(Wikipedia) ... The volunteer fire crews from nearby Sunray and Dumas were fighting the fire in a conventional manner while the decision was made to reduce the amount of liquid in the burning tank. This increased the volume of the tank filled with explosive vapors. A few minutes before seven in the morning, an hour after the blaze began, the tank ruptured as the remaining fluid in the tank boiled, increasing the gas pressure past the bursting point. Continued
(American Oil and Gas Historical Society) In December 1859, less than four months after Edwin L. Drake’s first U.S. oil well drilled in Pennsylvania, a similarly determined petroleum explorer named Lyne (Lynis) Taliaferro Barret began searching in an East Texas area known as Oil Springs. The 1848 invention of “coal oil” — kerosene — had prompted demand for an illuminating fuel made from oil, inspiring speculation and drilling. Continued
(American Oil and Gas Historical Society) Hundreds of technology exhibits at community petroleum museums offer insight to the nation’s energy heritage, which began with an 1859 oil discovery drilled 69.5 feet deep in Pennsylvania. Many museums are staffed with volunteer docents who worked in the industry and can teach young people about the complex modern business.
In addition to museums that often feature transportation (planes, trains, automobiles, and service stations), the 33 oil and natural gas producing states include many local museums with cable-tool derricks, drill bits, pump jacks, and equipment of all shapes and sizes. Continued
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1935, the Connally Hot Oil Act became law. The act came about as a result of the federal government's attempts to deal with the problem of "hot" oil--petroleum produced in violation of state and federal quotas and regulations.
In the early 1930s the overproduction of oil, largely a result of the East Texas oil boom, was adversely affecting the oil market. Continued
(American Oil & Gas Historical Society) In a valley in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859, Edwin Drake drilled America’s first commercial oil well, launching the U.S. petroleum industry. For his oil well pump, he borrowed a common water well hand pump to retrieve the new resource from 69.5 feet.
As the American petroleum industry was born, it wasn’t long before necessity and ingenuity combined to find something more efficient for producing oil from a well.
Continued
(Wikipedia) ... Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, the son of Grace (née Molonson) and Thomas Boone Pickens. His father worked as an oil and mineral landman (rights leaser).
During World War II, his mother ran the local Office of Price Administration, rationing gasoline and other goods in three counties. Pickens was the first child born via Caesarean section in the history of Holdenville hospital.
At age 12, Pickens delivered newspapers. He quickly expanded his paper route from 28 papers to 156. Pickens later cited his boyhood job as an early introduction to "expanding quickly by acquisition", a business practice he favored later in life.
When the oil boom in Oklahoma ended in the late 1930s, Pickens' family moved to Amarillo, Texas.
Continued
(Blanton Museum of Art) ... Some of us may have found ourselves on desolate roads much like the one depicted here. Bywaters in fact developed his idea for this painting while driving through West Texas.
Yet, embedded in the recognizable landscape are symbolic elements that infuse the scene with additional meaning: on the left side of the road, hanging on the storefront of Joe’s Garage is a sign that reads “666,” a number often associated with demonic forces.
Among discarded tires on the far right side of the painting is an abandoned piece of machinery with “Jesus Saves” scrawled across it, barely visible behind a sign for Hattie’s Hut, a honky-tonk where truckers are invited to enjoy the “dine and dance” on offer. Continued
(Wikipedia) The Magnolia Petroleum Company was an early twentieth century petroleum company in Texas founded on April 24, 1911 by the Sealy family of Galveston, as a consolidation of several earlier companies. Standard Oil of New York (Socony) exchanged its stock for all of the Magnolia stock (except seven shares for the Directors) in December 1925 though it continued to operate as an affiliate of Socony. Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Company in 1931, becoming Socony-Vacuum Oil Company. Magnolia Petroleum continued to operate as a subsidiary of Socony-Vacuum.
In 1959, Magnolia was fully incorporated into the Mobil division of Socony-Vacuum, which later changed its name to Socony Mobil and, ultimately to Mobil Oil Corporation. Continued
(TDbD) On this day in 1874, Haymon Krupp, merchant and oil wildcatter, was born in Kozno, Lithuania. In 1890 he immigrated to El Paso, Texas, where he worked in a dry-goods store and soon opened his own men's clothing store.
... Krupp entered the oil business when he joined Frank Pickrell, also of El Paso, to buy a lease option to drill for oil on University of Texas lands in the Permian Basin. Continued
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1904, the Batson-Old oilfield, located on Pine Bayou in southwestern Hardin County, reached its peak daily production.
That day the field yielded more than 150,000 barrels of crude. Continued
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1935, the Connally Hot Oil Act became law. The act came about as a result of the federal government's attempts to deal with the problem of "hot" oil--petroleum produced in violation of state and federal quotas and regulations.
In the early 1930s the overproduction of oil, largely a result of the East Texas oil boom, was adversely affecting the oil market. Continued
(NYTimes) In a global collapse of oil prices five years ago, scores of American oil companies went bankrupt. But one field withstood the onslaught, and even thrived: the Permian Basin, straddling Texas and New Mexico.
A combination of technical innovation, aggressive investing and copious layers of oil-rich shale have transformed the Permian, once considered a worn-out patch, into the world’s second-most-productive oil field. Continued
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1926, the first producing oil well in Ector County was brought in on the W. E. Connell ranch, southwest of the county seat of Odessa.
Its limited production of twenty barrels a day did not bring about an immediate boom, but with the opening of Penn Field in 1929 and Cowden Field in 1930, Odessa became an established oil center and grew rapidly. Continued
Instead of traditional cable tool percussion drilling, Barret chose to use an auger fastened to a pipe and rotated by a steam-driven cogwheel — the basic principle of rotary drilling — which has been used ever since. - American Oil & Gas Historical Society
(TDbD) On this day in 1866, the first producing oil well in Texas came in at a depth of 106 feet at Oil Springs in Nacogdoches County. The Melrose Petroleum Oil Company, which had been organized in December 1865 by Lyne Taliaferro (Tol) Barret and four partners, began drilling in the summer of 1866.
Taliaferro, a Nacogdoches County merchant born in Virginia in 1832, had first contracted to lease 279 acres near Oil Springs in 1859, but the Civil War put a temporary halt to his exploration. The first well produced about ten barrels a day … Continued
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1940, Frederick Albert Cook, physician, polar explorer, and infamous oil promoter, died in New Rochelle, New York.
The New York native was surgeon on the Arctic Expedition of Robert Peary in 1891-92 and the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1897-99. He led expeditions to Mount McKinley between 1903 and 1906. His claim to the first ascent of Mount McKinley was challenged as fraudulent.
He later falsely claimed to have beaten Peary to the North Pole by a year. Continued
Mary Lynn Moncus wrote in her "History of Quay County, New Mexico," that "the McGee Well created much excitement before it was abandoned." I wonder how many people lost money on that one. It made a certain amount of sense; after all, oil rich Texas was just down the road. The date? I'm guessing 1915, give or take a few years. This is the grimiest postcard I've ever seen.
However, there is oil under Quay County, it just wasn't extractable, until now. One day, oil may be Tucumcari's salvation, or its ruin, much like the "racino."
... Pickens was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, the son of Grace (née Molonson) and Thomas Boone Pickens. His father worked as an oil and mineral landman (rights leaser). During World War II, his mother ran the local Office of Price Administration, rationing gasoline and other goods in three counties. Pickens was the first child born via Caesarean section in the history of Holdenville hospital.
At age 12, Pickens delivered newspapers. He quickly expanded his paper route from 28 papers to 156. Pickens later cited his boyhood job as an early introduction to "expanding quickly by acquisition", a business practice he favored later in life.
When the oil boom in Oklahoma ended in the late 1930s, Pickens' family moved to Amarillo, Texas.
Continued
(Wikipedia) The Magnolia Petroleum Company was an early twentieth century petroleum company in Texas founded on April 24, 1911 by the Sealy family of Galveston, as a consolidation of several earlier companies.
Standard Oil of New York (Socony) exchanged its stock for all of the Magnolia stock (except seven shares for the Directors) in December 1925 though it continued to operate as an affiliate of Socony. Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Company in 1931, becoming Socony-Vacuum Oil Company. Magnolia Petroleum continued to operate as a subsidiary of Socony-Vacuum.
In 1959, Magnolia was fully incorporated into the Mobil division of Socony-Vacuum, which later changed its name to Socony Mobil and, ultimately to Mobil Oil Corporation. Continued
(TDbD) On this day in 1874, Haymon Krupp, merchant and oil wildcatter, was born in Kozno, Lithuania. In 1890 he immigrated to El Paso, Texas, where he worked in a dry-goods store and soon opened his own men's clothing store.
... Krupp entered the oil business when he joined Frank Pickrell, also of El Paso, to buy a lease option to drill for oil on University of Texas lands in the Permian Basin. Continued
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1926, the first producing oil well in Ector County was brought in on the W. E. Connell ranch, southwest of the county seat of Odessa.
Its limited production of twenty barrels a day did not bring about an immediate boom, but with the opening of Penn Field in 1929 and Cowden Field in 1930, Odessa became an established oil center and grew rapidly. Continued
Mary Lynn Moncus wrote in her "History of Quay County, New Mexico," that "the McGee Well created much excitement before it was abandoned." I wonder how many people lost money on that one. It made a certain amount of sense; after all, oil rich Texas was just down the road. The date? I'm guessing 1915, give or take a few years. This is the grimiest postcard I've ever seen. 
