When he died at age 100—40 years ago this year—he was the last of the Spindletop oil pioneers. Curtis G. Hamill was a driller on the 1901 discovery well that launched the Texas oil industry. As his obituary stated, Hamill was standing on a derrick platform 40 feet off the ground Jan. 10, 1901, when […]
Last Splash of the Summer: DO IT
While it may still be sultry summertime, there are refreshing getaways for those who know where to look. Reeves County this year’s hot spot of hot spots for drilling and completion activity—holds one such retreat. Balmorhea State Park, in Toyahville, is home to one of the largest (1/3 acre) manmade pools in the world. […]
Turning to the Right
In many ways, the story of drilling is the story of the drill bit. As that device has changed, so has the entire enterprise of making hole. by Bobby Weaver In today’s world the speed and efficiency of drilling oil wells has reached a level undreamed of by early day oilmen. The evolution of […]
Lighter Than Air: A History of the Helium Industry in the Permian
by Bobby Weaver The oil and gas industry produces many products ranging from fuel to plastics, but few are aware that the extraction of rare gases are an important, albeit a small, part of that activity. Perhaps the most important of those gases is helium. When the term helium is mentioned, the vision that comes […]
Oilfield Culture
Who are those people and why do they act that way? By Bobby Weaver No matter where they may roam, be it in oilfields in exotic places like the Middle East, South America, Africa, or even North Dakota, oilfield people maintain a certain persona. That persona derives from a close identification with the industry […]
Oil Patch Tales: Bait and Switch
by Bobby Weaver Some people, usually of the male gender, just plain like to fight. That is especially true of oil field hands. Now myself, I never was much of a hand at fisticuffs. For one thing I was a tad small for the activity and besides my threshold for pain was always […]
Back In The Day: Telling a Story
Telling a Story The fine photography collected, as well as (often) shot, by oilfield photographer Mitch Mayborn in middle-to-later 20th Century, working for Drilling Magazine, holds up as documentary imagery of that day, and as a nice primer to the various components of the patch.
Company Town
There are stories aplenty of “company towns” built by oil companies in oil’s early 20th century heyday, but no company town fit the mold better than a Basin town, Texon, that endured for generations. by Bobby Weaver Back in 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit song entitled “Sixteen Tons” concerning the travails of a […]
From Fresnos to Caterpillars
Dirt Work is the oilfield’s under-appreciated trade, and yet nothing gets done in the Patch until the dirt’s been worked. by Bobby Weaver I’ll never forget the first time I went out on a tanking job. It happened early in the summer of ’55, when we contracted to build a battery of two hi-fives in […]
Oil Scouts and Landmen: Perceptive, Perspicacious, and Persuasive
Oil scouts and land men have a history that intertwines—and skills sets that have some things in common. by Bobby Weaver The oil and gas industry has always been an extremely competitive field. From its very beginning in Pennsylvania in the 1850s, it was an industry whose practitioners found it necessary to know what the […]
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