Ohio Offshore Wells
Platforms on Grand Lake St. Marys, Ohio, produced oil as early as 1887.
As the 20th century approached, Ohio oil wells producing far out on a reservoir marked the true beginning of the U.S. offshore petroleum industry, according to Mercer County historians.
America’s first offshore drilling once was generally acknowledged to be over Louisiana’s Caddo Lake in 1911 — until researchers in Mercer and Auglaize counties in Ohio said otherwise. The oil patch sleuths pointed to multiple county documents recording oil wells producing above Grand Lake St. Marys at least 20 years before drillers built platforms on Caddo Lake. (more…)
