Billionth Barrel

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, you want to talk about a county that went from nearly nothing to something this state had never seen before, well, pull up close to the fire, because Andrews County, Texas, has a story that starts with a single well and ends with a number so big it needed its own ceremony. December of 1929.

That's when it all began, with a well called C. E. Ogden No. 1.

The discovery well. First oil out of Andrews County ground. At that same moment in time, the county had about four hundred people living in it.

Total. Its wealth, mostly land and livestock, came in at eight million, one hundred nine thousand, three hundred ninety-nine dollars. Five, count them, five people in the entire county filed income tax returns.

Fewer than a hundred children were in school. And the county was just about to issue highway bonds totaling two hundred thousand dollars, as a measure for improvement. Five people filing taxes.

Fewer than a hundred kids in school. That's the ground floor. Now hold that picture in your mind.

By 1956, Andrews County was producing more than sixty million barrels of oil every single year. Sixty million. That earned Andrews County the title of number one in Texas.

Number one in the United States. Not the region. Not West Texas.

The whole country. And then came May 25, 1965. From one of seven thousand four hundred producing oil wells, spread across one hundred ninety-six fields in the county, came a barrel of crude that was unlike any other barrel before it.

That barrel was number one billion. The billionth barrel of Andrews County crude oil. Thirty-five years and five months after C.

E. Ogden No. 1 first gave up its oil, Andrews County had crossed a threshold that demanded a place in history, and it got one. But here's what the marker wants you to sit with.

It's not just the billion barrels already pulled out of the ground. The proven reserves still lying underneath Andrews County at that time totaled more than one billion barrels additional, and that's without counting anything extra that secondary recovery methods might bring up. The ground wasn't done.

Not even close. And the marker, to its credit, doesn't let the numbers have the last word. Andrews, it says, is more than a product of a billion barrels of crude oil.

More than the gasoline plants working through the night. More than modern highways, paved streets, homes, schools, and dreams. Its destiny, the marker says, is great in human resources, and oil.

From five income tax returns to a billion barrels. From fewer than a hundred schoolchildren to a county whose destiny was called great. Andrews didn't just find oil in December of 1929.

It found its whole future sitting right there under the West Texas dirt.

What the marker says

On May 25, 1965, from one of 7,400 producing oil wells in the county's 196 fields, came the Billionth Barrel of Andrews County crude oil. In the 35 years and 5 months since oil flowed from the county's discovery well, C. E. Ogden No. 1, in Dec. 1929, Andrews has attained a new place in history. In 1929, the county had about 400 people. Its wealth, mostly in land and livestock, amounted to $8,109,399. Five persons in the county filed income tax returns. There were fewer than 100 children in school. Highway bonds in the amount of $200,000 were about to be issued, as a measure for county improvement. By 1956, Andrews County produced more than 60,000,000 barrels of oil annually--gaining recognition as number one in Texas and in the United States. Of great significance is the fact that presently proven reserves underlying the county total more than one billion barrels, without any consideration for additional recoveries by secondary methods. Andrews is more than a product of the billion barrels of crude of oil it has produced, more than the gasoline plants working through the night, more than modern highways, paved streets, homes, schools, dreams. Its destiny is great in human resources--and oil. (1965)