DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Permian Basin — and friend, buckle up, because this one goes back a quarter of a billion years before it gets to the part about the money. Now, the Permian Basin is one of the two richest oil fields in the world. Not one of the richest in Texas.
Not one of the richest in the country. One of the two richest on the entire planet. And it all started with a single well up in Mitchell County in 1920.
Just a well. Just a hunch in the ground. But that hunch had some friends waiting to introduce themselves. 1923 brought the Big Lake strike.
Then 1925 lit up Upton County with the kind of boom that gets called wild even by people who lived through it. And then the thing just kept spreading — Andrews, Crane, Ector, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Ward, Winkler — and on and on through twenty-four other counties beyond those. The Permian Basin wasn't a discovery so much as an unraveling.
The longer folks pulled on that thread, the more there was to pull. At peak pace, new wells were averaging thirty-eight a week. Thirty-eight.
A week. Fortunes were made, lost, then regained — all within months. That's not a typo, and I'm not embellishing.
The marker says months. You could ride into this basin a rich man, ride out broke, and ride back in flush again before the calendar had time to get uncomfortable about it. Now here's the detail that'll stick with you around a campfire.
Oil got so plentiful, so fast, that it sold for fifty cents a barrel. Fifty cents. Meanwhile, out there in that same sun-hammered patch of West Texas, drillers were paying five dollars a barrel for drinking water.
The stuff coming out of the ground was ten times cheaper than the stuff keeping them alive to drill it. The Basin covers eighty-eight thousand, six hundred and ten square miles. And the center of it — right here — is Odessa.
But here's where the story gets truly old. Underneath all of it, buried deep, is a prehistoric sea. More than two hundred and fifty million years ago, that sea was full of fish, full of reptiles — dinosaurs among them.
Shores and islands grew giant vegetation. Then the earth shifted, as it tends to do when it's been around long enough, and it buried those animals and those plants in pockets. And over time — unhurried, enormous, indifferent time — those hydrocarbons became petroleum.
Every barrel that came out of the Permian Basin was once something alive. In forty years from discovery, the Basin was producing fifty-three percent of all the oil in Texas, and twenty percent of all the crude oil in the United States. It became one of the world's largest producers of channel carbon black.
And the oil wasn't done giving — sulphur, asphalt, synthetic rubber ingredients, petrochemicals all followed. A prehistoric sea, a 1920 well, a wild boom, thirty-eight new holes a week, and fifty-cent oil that was cheaper than the water to drink. That's the Permian Basin.
Two hundred and fifty million years in the making, and it's been in a hurry ever since.
What the marker says
One of the two richest oil fields in the world. Discovery began in 1920 at a Mitchell County Well. Next came the 1923 big lake strike, then the wild 1925 boom in Upton County, followed by production in Andrews, Crane, Ector, Martin, Midland, Pecos, Ward, Winkler and 24 other counties. In some years new wells averaged 38 a week. Fortunes were Mae, lost, then regained--all within months. So great were yields that oil brought 50 cents a barrel, while drillers paid $5.00 a barrel for drinking water. Area is 88,610 square miles, with center here at Odessa. Extends across a deeply buried prehistoric sea that more than 250 million years ago contained much fish and reptile life, including dinosaurs. Shores and islands later grew giant vegetation, until earth changes buried animals and plants in pockets that turned hydrocarbons into petroleum. In 40 years from its discovery, the Permian Basin, was producing 53% of total oil in Texas 20% of U.S. crude oil. It is one of the world's largest producers of channel carbon black. Other by-products sulphur, asphalt, synthetic rubber ingredients and petrochemicals.