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Editor's Note -- To learn more offshore petroleum history, see the society's articles Deep Sea Roughnecks and Swimming Wrenches (a history of remotely operated undersea vehicles).
America’s offshore oil industry began in the Pacific Ocean more than 100 years ago. As recently as 1947 no company had ever risked drilling beyond the sight of land. In 1896, as enterprising businessmen pursued California’s prolific Summerland oilfield all the way to the beach, the lure of offshore production enticed Henry L. Williams and his associates to build a pier 300 feet out into the Pacific -- and mount a standard cable-tool rig on it.
By 1897 this first offshore well was producing oil and 22 companies soon joined in the boom, constructing 14 more piers and over 400 wells within the next five years. The Summerland offshore field produced for 25 years -- fueling the growth of California's economy.
Drilling piers were the cutting-edge technology of the day.  In 1894, Henry Williams drilled two wells on a California beach. He drilled another in 1895 with encouraging results. This led Williams and others to exploring for oil offshore the next year. They constructed piers and drilled wells, leading to the realization that the Summerland oilfield extended offshore. This would be the first offshore field developed in the nation by drilling offshore wells from piers. – From the County of Santa Barbara, Energy Division  In 1911, Gulf Refining Co. abandoned the use of piers. It drilled Ferry Lake No. 1 on Caddo Lake, La., using a fleet of tugboats, barges, and floating pile drivers.
When the well came in at 450 barrels per day, Gulf constructed platforms every 600 feet on each 10-acre lakebed site. It was the first time drilling was done over water without a pier connection to shore. Editor's Note -- Although America's "first offshore drilling" is generally acknowledged to be over Louisiana's Caddo Lake, Ohio oil historians say otherwise. See Ohio OffshoreWells.
In 1938, Pure Oil Co. and Superior Oil Co. built a freestanding drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, despite logistics, engineering, and communications challenges. They hired a Houston engineering and construction company, Brown & Root Marine Operators, Inc., to build a 320-foot by 180-foot freestanding wooden deck in 14-feet of water about a mile offshore. The chosen drilling site was near Creole, La. Using onshore building criteria and intuition, the Creole platform was designed to withstand winds of 150 mph and constructed 15-feet above the water. Three hundred treated yellow pine pilings were driven 14 feet into the sandy bottom.
The Superior-Pure State No. 1 well was successful – but was wiped off its pilings by a hurricane in 1940. Although the pilings were damaged, the platform was quickly rebuilt and put back into production in the four million barrel field. Searching for Gulf of Mexico Salt Domes  Kerr-McGee answered the salt dome question with the Kermac No. 16 offshore rig in 1947. Not much equipment specifically designed for offshore drilling existed and exploration remained an extraordinarily speculative and risky business venture. An offshore dry hole could easily swallow the huge capital costs sunk into construction of a large, permanent rig platforms. Nevertheless, Dean McGee of Kerr-McGee Oil Industries Inc. partnered with Phillips Petroleum and Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. to secure leases for exploratory wells in the Gulf of Mexico. They hired Brown & Root to build a freestanding platform 10 miles out to sea. "We decided to explore the areas where the really potential prolific production might be – salt domes – the good ones on land were gone, but we could move out in the shallow water and, in effect, get into a virgin area where we could find the real class-one type salt dome prospect," McGee said. Vessels were needed to provide supplies, equipment, and crew quarters for the drilling site, 43 miles southwest of Morgan City, La. The gradually sloping Gulf of Mexico reached only about 18-feet deep at the drilling site. A second platform would be built about eight miles from the first at Ship Shoal Block 28. Sixteen 24-inch pilings were sunk 104 feet into the ocean floor to secure a 2,700 square foot wooden deck. The Kermac No. 16 well stood in almost 20 feet of water, ten miles at sea. It was spudded on Sept. 10, 1947. The biggest hurricane of the season arrived a week later – with winds of 140 mph. Kerr-McGee had $450,000 invested in the project. Although both platforms were evacuated during the hurricane, damage was minimal and drilling promptly resumed. On Nov.14, the Kermac No. 16 well came in at 40 barrels per hour. Modern offshore energy industry benefits come from the hard lessons learned from 60 years of open water experience. Compared to the limits of just a few years ago, today’s achievements will no doubt pale in comparison to what the future of offshore exploration will bring.
Editor's Note -- By the end of 1949, 11 oil and natural gas fields were found in the Gulf of Mexico with 44 exploratory wells, according to the National Ocean Industries Association, which notes that the industry continued to through the 1950s. Revenue generated from the production of oil became the second-largest revenue generator for the country, after income taxes. NOIA also notes:
"As the industry entered the last decade of the 20th century, advancing technology ensued. New depth records for drilling reached 7,625 feet in the Gulf of Mexico, and Shell Oil's platform 'Troll,' which stands in the North Sea in 1,000 feet of water, 1,500 feet high, became one of two man-made objects visible with the naked eye from the surface of the moon. The other is the Great Wall of China."   A flat area on an LST (from WW Two's landing ship, tanks) anchored next to Humble Rig 28 served as landing pad for one of the first helicopters to be flown offshore. At left is a Bell Helicopter advertisment from 1954. – From the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum
 This depiction of offshore drilling and completion platforms gives an idea of just how massive modern rigs can be. Because of their size, most permanent offshore rigs are constructed in pieces near land. As components of the rig are completed, they are taken out to the drilling location. Sometimes construction or assembly can even take place as the rig is being transported to its intended destination. – From naturalgas.org
Learn more about offshore petroleum history, read: Deep Sea Roughnecks and Swimming Wrenches (a history of remotely operated undersea vehicles).
-- Adapted from Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2006 Petroleum Age
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