Scurry County's Billionth Barrel of Oil

The field behind the billionth barrel began as two discoveries. The Handbook of Texas says Magnolia's Winston Brothers well, finished November 5, 1948, opened Kelly field, and fifteen days later Standard's Jessie Brown 2 opened North Snyder. In January 1949 the Railroad Commission combined them as Kelly-Snyder after ruling they shared one reservoir. Fast output cut pressure from 3,122 to 1,675 pounds per square inch by October 1952, so operators unitized the field as SACROC on March 1, 1953, added a waterflood in 1954 and began a large carbon dioxide flood in 1971.

What the plaque says

Scurry County's Billionth Barrel of Oil Petroleum discoveries in this county began in 1923, with recovery of oil in the San Andres Formation--eventually penetrated by over 2,000 shallow wells. In late 1948, rigs drilling deeper than 6,000 feet tapped the Canyon Reef Geological Formation. Four exploratory wells--Sun Oil Company's Schattel; Magnolia's Winston; Standard Oil Company of Texas Brown; Lion Oil Company's C. T. McLaughlin--and other extensive drilling defined a gigantic field covering 85,000 acres and containing oil reserves estimated to total at least four billion barrels. The local economy and growth rate improved greatly. Many farmers and ranchers who had fought years of drouth and adversity paid off debts, modernized their homes, and continued to live on their land. On Oct. 8, 1973, twenty-five years after the Canyon Reef discovery, Scurry County produced from that formation its billionth barrel of oil, and in a week of festivities paid tribute to the petroleum industry. The celebrated billionth barrel of oil came from the well near this marker. By 1973, Scurry County was producing 3.2 per cent of all the oil recovered annually in the United States. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Scurry County Museum — 8.3 mi
  Snyder's county museum on the Western Texas College campus, with the rifle used to shoot the white buffalo, an 1878 chuckwagon and the millionth barrel of the Canyon Reef oil boom.

More markers nearby

• Home County of Famous Frontiersman J. Wright Mooar — 3.7 mi
• The Block 97 Controversy — 5.0 mi
• Dermott — 5.6 mi
• Witness Tree — 5.7 mi