This Week in Petroleum History: March 30 – April 5

by | Mar 30, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History

March 30, 1980 – Deadly North Sea Gale –

A massive gale in the North Sea capsized a floating accommodation platform for Phillips Petroleum Company workers, killing 123 people. The Alexander L. Kielland, 235 miles east of Dundee, Scotland, housed 208 men who worked on a nearby rig in the Ekofisk field. The converted semi-submersible drilling platform served as housing space for the Phillips production platform 300 yards away. Most of the Phillips Petroleum workers were from Norway.

The wind was gusting to 40 knots with waves up to 12 meters high when anchor cables broke, according to a 2019 SAFETY4SEA article. “The rig had just been winched away from the Edda production platform. At about 6:30 p.m., most men were off duty in the accommodation on Alexander L. Kielland when they felt a ‘sharp crack’ followed by ‘some kind of trembling,’ survivors said. Within seconds, the platform tilted between 35 and 40 degrees.”
(more…)

Pump Jack Capital of Texas

by | Mar 25, 2026 | Petroleum Pioneers

Electra residents in 1911 thought news of the oil gusher was an April Fool’s Day joke.

 

When a geyser of oil erupted from the Clayco No. 1 well near Electra on April 1, 1911, the giant oilfield discovery launched a drilling boom that brought prosperity and more exploration to North Texas. State lawmakers would later designate Electra and its giant, shallow oilfield as the “Pump Jack Capital of Texas.”

Just south of the Red River, Electra was a small, cotton-farming community barely four years old when petroleum exploration companies rushed to North Texas in 1911. (more…)

Pin It on Pinterest