Billionth Barrel

On May 25, 1965, the billionth barrel of Andrews County crude oil came from one of 7,400 producing oil wells in the county's 196 fields. In the 35 years and 5 months since oil flowed from the county's discovery well, C.E. Ogden No. 1, in Dec. 1929, Andrews County had reached a new place in history. In 1929, the county had about 400 people, wealth mostly in land and livestock totaling $8,109,399, five income tax filers, fewer than 100 schoolchildren, and $200,000 in highway bonds about to be issued for county improvement. By 1956, Andrews County was producing more than 60,000,000 barrels of oil annually, gaining recognition as number one in Texas and in the United States. Its proven reserves then totaled more than one billion barrels, not counting additional recoveries by secondary methods. Andrews County was presented as more than the billion barrels of crude oil it had produced, more than gasoline plants operating through the night, and more than modern highways, paved streets, homes, schools, and dreams, with a destiny seen as great in human resources and oil.

Andrews, Texas · United States