Spindletop gusher and rotary drilling
Pozo surgente de Spindletop y perforación rotatoria
- Date
- 1901 · confidence high
- Place
- Beaumont, Texas, United States
- Credited to
- Anthony Lucas and Patillo Higgins
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The Lucas No. 1 well threw oil more than 50 metres high, producing tens of thousands of barrels a day, and showed rotary drilling with mud circulation into a salt dome. It opened the Texas oil era.
Rotary drilling dates back to Fauvelle (1845) and others; Spindletop was its large-scale demonstration in loose sands.
What it led to
- the Texas oil boom and companies like Texaco and Gulf
- cheap liquid fuel for ships and cars
- rotary drilling as the world standard