You may have read my Blog on the big oil spill in the Gulf. Most people seem to claim that it was the biggest oil spill in American history. Like most of what you read in the news paper, it just might not be the truth or at least the whole truth. The fact is that the biggest oil spill in history occured back on March 14th, 1910. You want to know where? Between the cities of Taft and Maricopa. Most of you have never heard of these two towns. I worked in the oil fields around Taft and actually lived in Taft at the Standard Oil bunch house at Camp 11C for the summer.
You can check this all out by going on the Web, but here are a few facts. The well was being dug with a cable tool, not like the rotary that they use today. The mud that they were using was not heavey enough to hold back the high pressure of the field. The well flowed free for 18 months and lost a total of about 387 million gallons of oil. The oil ran for miles around the well, but in the end, they were able to reclaim almost 50%. There is still a hole about 150 feet deep where the well head was and it is all covered with hard black oil.
My point is that the next time you hear some news cast about oil, think twice. With the Gulf oil spill, the so call experts are still trying to find out where all the oil went. Recall my Blog right after the event? I told you that the Gulf oil spill would turn out not to be such a big deal and it wasn't. I guess this should make you think twice when ever you hear some self appointed expert making predictions about anything. They did not predict the housing bubble bursting or the dot-com bubble. You have to ask why not?
