Abstract

One of the first gas shows in West Texas was recorded before 1889 at a depth of eighty feet in the Nasworthy water well test some four miles north of San Angelo. The 1200 feet deep Turney well located thirteen miles northeast of Fort Stockton found oil and gas at several depths. It was drilled in 1900. The following year saw another show near Fort Stockton, three shows in Pecos County, a sixty feet deep show in two Concho County water wells, several oil and gas shows in a 282 feet penetration in Pecos County, and oil shows in several holes in El Paso County.

Captain John Pope had introduced cutting-edge drilling technology to West Texas in the month of June 1855. Commissioned by the War Department to test for subsurface water in the area between the Texas Colorado and the Pecos rivers, Captain Pope drilled several wells utilizing the Ruffner solid rod percussion system. His final test in 1858 reached a total depth of 1050 feet. Mr. Brown, who had helped drill the famous Belchar Sugar Refinery well in St. Louis, Missouri, was the civilian superintendent of this project.

Drill-stem testing came into use around 1926, when E.C. and M.O. Johnston invented the retaining valve. A cone shaped packer made from belting material seated on the rim of a pilot-hole. The equalizing valve was added in 1931, and the pressure recorder in 1934.

Resistivity logging was introduced in Europe in 1927; spontaneous potential was discovered in 1931. A gamma-ray log had been run near Kermit by 1937. Neutron logging was described in the early 1940’s and quantified by the end of the decade. Microresistivity devices had appeared by 1949.