Show Risk in Oil Discovery While self appointed experts glibly talk of the alleged tax breaks granted the oil Industry through such measures as perc percentage depletion it is Instructive instructive tive live to read of history's s first large large- scale oil discovery It occurred at 1030 on th the morning of January 10 1901 ne near hear r Beaumont Texas on a mound called Spindletop These arc are facts of record of course which are arc widely known The story behind this discovery is not so well known A man and hIs nis wife spent their last dime and sold the furn furniture ture from their home to raise money t to drill first a dry hole and then a second hole that also promised to be a failure when drillers ran into sand and wanted to quit The wife of the pioneer oilman insisted that they fulfill their contract and drill to 1200 feet Oil was struck at 1160 feet On that fateful January morning the first great oil gusher blew in Six tons of pipe came shooting out of the well followed by a geyser of oil that towered more than feet in the air The well flowed at a rate of to barrels a day compared to the entire output of all the oil fields in the United States of ot less than barrels dally daily As a leading oil industry spokesman of today notes of the Spindletop discovery discovery ery cry There was a roar like cannon fire It turned out to be the sound of the Twentieth Century born in a gusher of oil And it came about because a aman aman aman man and his wife with a great deal of faith risked home and savings on aVenture aventure a aVenture Venture that most of the experts who prattle about tax loopholes would lack the vision or th the courage to attempt Thanks to the risk takers the oil industry indus try Was able to meet a domestic petroleum petroleum pet petS demand in 1970 equal to 1100 gallons for each man woman and child in the United States some 54 billion barrels Estimates indicate than an abundance of petroleum and gas remain to be discovered But in recent years the discovery rate has declined as the in incentive incentive incentive in- in to search for oil has been through regulation and taxation This is the climate which oilmen say must be altered with adoption of a new national oil policy if energy requirements requirements require require- ments arc are to be met in the future 0 |