by Bruce Wells | Jan 12, 2025 | Offshore History
Atomic Energy Commission robot inspired offshore petroleum industry’s remotely operated vehicles.
Shell Oil and the Hughes Aircraft in 1960 began modifying an advanced but landlocked “Manipulator Operated Robot” — soon known as Mobot — into one that could operate underwater. The result would lead to revolutionary offshore swimming machines for petroleum exploration and production.
Much of the 21st-century’s offshore oil and natural gas industry has relied on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) that can trace their roots back to Howard Hughes, Jr. In the late 1950s, Hughes Aircraft created a Manipulator Operated Robot – Mobot – for the Atomic Energy Commission. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jan 6, 2025 | Offshore History
As the turn of the century approached, oil producing Ohio wells drilled far out over a reservoir mark the beginning of America’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.
Oil patch sleuths pointed to Mercer County documents recording wells producing oil above the waters of Grand Lake St. Marys at least 20 years before drillers ventured over the waters of Caddo Lake above the giant Caddo-Pine Island field. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Nov 6, 2024 | Offshore History
The U.S. offshore drilling for oil began in the late-19th century on lakes and at the ends of Pacific Ocean piers. Until an innovative Kerr-McGee drilling platform in 1947, no offshore drilling company had ever risked drilling beyond the sight of land.
Many of the earliest offshore oil wells were drilled from piers at Summerland in Santa Barbara County, California. Circa 1901 photo by G.H. Eldridge courtesy National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.
In 1896, as enterprising businessmen pursued California’s prolific Summerland oilfield all the way to the beach, the lure of offshore production enticed Henry L. Williams and his associates to build a pier 300 feet out into the Pacific — and mount a standard cable-tool rig on it. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jul 28, 2024 | Offshore History, Petroleum in War
Shipwrecks revealed during routine scan of Gulf of Mexico seabed for new pipelines.
During World War II, U-boats prowled the Gulf of Mexico to disrupt the flow of oil carried by tankers departing ports in Louisiana and Texas. Sixty years later, seabed surveys found U-166 — and its last victim.
Petroleum exploration and production companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico’s outer continental shelf routinely provide government scientists with sonar data for areas with potential archaeological value. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jun 7, 2024 | Offshore History
Mr. Charlie originated with Navy World War II veteran Alden “Doc” LaBorde, who believed a self-sufficient oil rig could be placed on a barge for deeper offshore drilling. LaBorde’s Mr. Charlie — the world’s first mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) — has since served as a “glimpse into the past” of the modern energy industry. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jun 4, 2024 | Offshore History
America’s offshore petroleum industry began with drilling and production from platforms constructed on lakes in Ohio and Louisiana, and on California oil piers. In Ohio, state geologists reported oil wells drilled on Grand Lake as early as 1891. Dozens of wells on Louisiana’s Caddo Lake also produced oil in 1911.
By 1897, Henry Williams had successfully pursued the giant Summerland, California, oilfield to the scenic cliff side beaches of Santa Barbara.
California Oil Piers
With reports of “tar balls” on the beaches from natural offshore oil seeps, Williams recognized that the highly productive field extended into the Pacific Ocean. He and his associates constructed a 300 foot pier, mounted a cable-tool derrick, and began drilling. (more…)
