This Week in Petroleum History, December 4 to December 10
December 4, 1928 – First Oil Discovery using Reflection Seismography –
Following tests in the early 1920s, reflection seismic technology was first used to find oil in Oklahoma when Amerada Petroleum Corporation drilled a well into the Viola limestone formation near Seminole.
Seismic reflections help identify geologic formations.
The Amerada Petroleum well was the world’s first oil discovery in a geological structure that had been identified by reflection survey. Others soon followed as the technology revealed dozens of mid-continent oilfields. (more…)
