Word: bbl
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Among the wild banana trees in the hills of Veracruz state, oil crews last week spudded in the second well of the richest Mexican oil strike in more than 20 years. Near by, the discovery well, which gushed 19,000 bbl. a day until it was choked down, was producing 1,200 bbl. a day for the government-run oil company Pemex (Petroleos Mexicanos). Capping a series of earlier achievements, the new field signified that Pemex, after the years of fumbling that followed its formation in 1938 from expropriated U.S. and British oil companies, had finally found...
Taking Over. What Pemex took over upon expropriation was no booming industry. From its 1921 peak of 193 million bbl., production had sagged badly as salt water seeped into the major fields and fear of expropriation caused the curtailment of new exploration. In 1938 only 38.5 million bbl. came out of the ground. The jubilation that greeted President Lazaro Cardenas' expropriation decree was hardly borne out by the prospects. Technicians fled. Outraged foreign companies organized a boycott against exported Mexican oil, persuaded equipment suppliers to refuse sales to Pemex. Soon Mexico was buying oil abroad...
...April 22, as company officials gathered round Phillips' Kaybob well, the drill stem broke through to a formation of oil-bearing limestone nearly 10,000 ft. down. The first tests showed a natural flow of more than 2,600 bbl. a day. Nearby, Home Oil's Swan Hills and Virginia Hills wells augered down into the same limestone formation, also found heavy concentrations...
Prospects are far brighter for oil. Buried under the desert, in three areas 280 miles to 800 miles south of Algiers, are proved reserves of 3.5 billion bbl. and possible reserves of 7 billion bbl. Eight wells are already operating, and a new one was brought in a fortnight ago. Some of the crude is pure enough to power a diesel engine without being refined. A huge natural gas field also was struck 700 miles due south of Algiers...
...Midwesterners, whose 500,000 bbl. a day petroleum consumption is rising 20% a year, the Chicago spur holds high promise of reversing the present pattern of costly refining in congested market areas. By becoming an independent common carrier, Texas Eastern can ship the lower-cost products of Gulf Coast refineries on a steadier basis than slow, crude-hauling Mississippi River barges, and at as much as 30? a barrel less...