One Hundred Million Barrels of Oil From Block 31 Unit

Block 31 is one field in a county that oil made. Crane County produced more than 5,494,600 barrels of oil in 1938, 16,851,698 in 1948 and almost 30,731,500 in 1960, and output peaked near 34,092,000 barrels in 1978. By the start of 1991 the county had yielded almost 1,552,324,000 barrels since the 1926 discovery. Oil also filled the county: 2,221 people lived there in 1930 and 4,699 in 1960. The town of Crane, the county's only community, still had a foundry among its businesses in 2000.

What the plaque says

One Hundred Million Barrels of Oil From Block 31 Unit A discovery well completed in Nov. 1945 about a mile to the northeast has led to vast production of oil--one hundred million barrels by July 27, 1969. The discovery well, University A No.1 , was drilled by the Atlantic Richfield Company. This development is on land belonging to the University of Texas, designated as Block 31 Unit, and leased to Atlantic Richfield (the operator), Phillips Petroleum Company, Continental Oil Company and Champlin Petroleum Company. The unit--7,200 acres in area--has 72 wells approximately 8,500 feet deep, into the earth stratum known as the Devonian formation. Through the years, unusual processes were used to increase unit oil recovery. High pressure natural gas was injected, to wash oil from subterranean rock. Later, exhaust gas was injected instead of the costlier natural gas. Research and farsighted policies made possible unusually high recovery in this reservoir. Credit for the conservation and good management of this unit goes to the Texas Railroad Commission (as the regulatory body with oversight of oil production), the University of Texas and owners of the unit. (1969) supplemental plate added 1989: A second milestone was reached October 17, 1987, when the two hundred millionth barrel of crude oil was produced from the Block 31 Unit.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Odessa Meteor Crater — 22 mi
  A shallow bowl in the ranchland southwest of Odessa where a shower of iron meteorites struck in the late Ice Age, with a trail down into it and a small museum on the rim.
• Monahans Sandhills State Park — 25 mi
  A small corner of a 200-mile dune field east of the Pecos, where fresh water lies just under the sand and a forest of shin oak grows no higher than your knee.
• Mendoza Trail Museum — 25 mi
  A 1966 museum in a 1925 oil town, named for the Spanish officer who crossed this country in 1683 at the invitation of the Jumano, with a 1915 bungalow beside it.
• Million Barrel Museum — 27 mi
  An oil reservoir that could not hold oil, then a water park that lasted one day, now a museum in Monahans with the story of the Pyote bomber base beside it.

More markers nearby

• Juan Cordona Lake — 6.6 mi
• William Carey Crane — 6.6 mi
• Charles Boothe Curry — 7.2 mi
• Church & Fields Oil Discovery Well — 7.6 mi