Denver City High School - Mustang Yearbook (Denver City, TX)

Page 16 text:

,L A P I P E A l, E E J, W, ,- ,W ...WV---We -Y W- ef--'W V W M , -'7 m ' 'Mr W e THE PERMIAN BASIN The Permian Basin, embracing 35 counties in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, covers an area of more than 46,000 square miles and contains 262 oil fields whose 23,000 pro- ducing wells yielded a cumulative total of two billion and 390 million ba r r el s of oil in the past 25 years. That is a quick picture of the most extensive oil producing area in the United States today. Twenty-five years ago the scene was quite different. Then the Permian Basin contained th e same number of counties, the same total area, and the same rugged and varied terrain. But 25 years agothe area was one vast pasture, grazing cattle and sheep. There were small sections in which dry land farming produced cotton and feed,but to the greater part of the 78,000 people who inhabited the tractless and sand dune areas, the region simply meant ranching. Then oil was discovered! New people came, a new way of life began developing. Oil companies moved in drilling and producing personnel and e r e ct e d comfortable and p e r m a n e nt housing facilities for them. Communities grew up around oil fi eld s and highways were laid to connect the fields and the c ommunitie s . People who came stayed and helped to develop this former range area into a sturdy new empire--important in the oil world. For a full understanding of the region in which such expansion and progress has taken place, a geographic bird's-eye view is important. The Permian Basin actually b e g in s in Kansas and extends through portions of six states. To oil people, however, the area of primary importance is made up of two counties in southeastern New Mexic o and 33 counties in western Texas, and area slighty greater than the state of Pennsylvania, birthplace of the oil industry. Roughly, the Basin extends from Sweetwater, Texas, on the east, to Artesia, New Mexico on the west, fr om Hall county on the north to central Pecos county on the south. In the distant past, known as the Pennsylvanian era, geologists reconstructed the Permian Basin as an area e ntir ely under water--covered by a desiccating, or gradually disappearing sea. A chain of mountains known as the Llanorians exi st ed in approximately the sam e area occupied by the oilfield studded Central Basin today. During the 150 million years between th e Pennsylvanian a nd the Woodbine periods these m ount ain s were worn down by the winds, t h e streams, and by weathering, to a gently rolling plain not very high above sea level. By the time we reach the Woodbine age 100 million years a g o , the Basin area wa s a flat peninsula of land, covered by a blanket of young beds of sand, clay, and limestone, a nd surrounded on th e w e st, south, and east by water. No mountains were then in evidence and the land W a s probably covered W it h luxuriant vegetation. Another 50 million years brings us to Midway time,whenthe Permian Basin was a dry area of upland, a lr e ad y considerably higher in elevation than the Gulf s h o r e line which ran along a line dr awn from Eagle Pass t o San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas. The final 50 million y e a r period between Ivlidway and today was o ne in which g e ol o gic mountain building was world wide. Thi s accounts for the major mountain systems we know in the world today, as well as for the lesser mountains and hills in the Permian Basin. Geologically speaking, then, the Basin derives its name from the great thickness of Permian deposits laid down inthe area duringthe 150 million years between the Pennsylvanian and Wood- bine periods. Oil is produced in the Permian Basin area from rocks of nearly every g eologic age from Cambrian to Tertiary--from Upper Permian, Middle Permian and Lower Permian beds. Esti- mates show that about 96.5 per c ent of the 2,390,000,000 barrels of oil produced to date in the Basin have come from these beds, and thatthey harbor 76 per cent of the known reserves. Whil e present estimates of proved reserves in known fields indicate that 84 per cent of the total ultimate productionfrom the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico will come from the Permian, the rate of discovery of imp o rtant pre-Permian oil may finally represent one-third of the ultimate production from this area. , The Permian Basin today, contrasted with the PermianBasin 25 years ago, cannot be painted in any other terms but that of a great transformation. Petroleum has been the major cause of that change. Petroleum will continue to be the mainspring of the area's progress for years to come, for the continued orderly development and scientific production the Permian Basin ha s a calculated life expectancy much longer than its past. - Humble Oil and Refining Co.

Page 15 text:

f :aa-ual!! rn-UZ ,. SP1-M ,,. .. 13:1 HIYIUQ ' ar f R' K C C F5 1 ii A V li. if .ssl N' 2323 ' ,wg-H I l'i H SM ' QP' -. ' L 'f U ni l M X Q 5 .f CQ? Q ,..i..,.l ,,xv , . M, - of-x we 'wwf' M-.-,1+ .. ,, Wilson Head Coach - Math B. S. - Howard Payne T,Wf'f 1 i,', 3 Buford Emler Coach - Math W.T.S.T.C. Mrs. S. P. Shaw, Jr. Physical Education B. S. - N.T.S.T.C. Mrs. C. B. Lowrance Library B,S.M. - Indiana Univ Clyde Keith Industrial Arts B S - W.T.S.T C J. T. Mitchel Metal Shop W.T.S.T.C. -ti..

Page 17 text:

Shell Oil Co., Inc. PRDDLICTIUN