Black Hills Petroleum Company
A typical South Dakota drilling site in Custer County in 1929 – decades before the state’s first commercial oil production. Photo courtesy South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The first true oil production in South Dakota came in 1954 in northwestern corner of the state. Harding County wells produced oil from the massive Williston Basin.
A year later, discoveries came from other formations to the south in Custer County. The Black Hills of the Powder River Basin brought new waves of exploration companies. (more…)
