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Extraction Not Creation: The History of Offshore Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Tyler Priest
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Abstract

Offshore development is one of the most important but least analyzed chapters in the history of the petroleum industry, and the Gulf of Mexico is the most explored, drilled, and developed offshore petroleum province in the world. This essay examines offshore oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico, highlighting the importance of access and how the unique geology and geography of the Gulf shaped both access and technology. Interactions between technology, capital, geology, and the political structure of access in the Gulf of Mexico generated a functionally and regionally complex extractive industry that repeatedly resolved the material and economic contradictions of expanding into deeper water. This was not achieved, however, simply through technological miracles or increased mastery over the environment, as industry experts and popular accounts often imply. The industry moved deeper only by more profoundly adapting to the environment, not by transcending its limits. This essay diverges from celebratory narratives about offshore development and from interpretations that emphasize the social construction of the environment. It challenges the storyline of market-driven technology and its miraculous ability to expand and create petroleum abundance in the Gulf.

Type
Articles
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 8 , Issue 2: Business and Nature , June 2007 , pp. 227 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.

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References

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Carroll, Chris. “In Hot Water.” National Geographic (Aug. 2005): 72–85.Google Scholar
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Dykstra, Bouwe. “Costs, Allowable Rate Hinders Offshore Work.” Drilling (Aug. 1959): 65, 114.Google Scholar
“First Offering of Continental Shelf Leases Brings High Bonuses.” World Petroleum (Nov. 1954): 86.Google Scholar
“First Well in Gulf of Mexico was Drilled Just 25 Years Ago.” Offshore (Oct. 1963): 17–19.Google Scholar
Godec, Michael L., Vello, A.Kuuskraa. and Kuck, Brian T. “How U.S. Gulf of Mexico Development, Finding, Cost Trends Have Evolved.” Oil & Gas Journal (6 May 2002): 52–60.Google Scholar
“Island on Stilts.” Shell News (Feb. 1952): 11–13.Google Scholar
Kaiser, Mark J., and Pulsipher, Allan G. “Various Factors Affect Severance Selection.” Oil & Gas Journal (27 Sept. 2004): 41–52.Google Scholar
Mcgee, Dean A. “Economics of Offshore Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.” Offshore Drilling (Feb. 1955): 16.Google Scholar
Mouawad, Jad. “Oil Explorers Searching Ever More Remote Areas.” New York Times, 9 Sept. 2004, pp. B1, B4.Google Scholar
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“No. 1 Gulf Field Growing Fast.” Oil & Gas Journal (18 June 1956): 139.Google Scholar
“Offshore Drilling Gets Better Sea Legs.” Business Week (18 Aug. 1962): 101.Google Scholar
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Pittman, J. W. “It’s A Boom!” Offshore (Oct. 1963): 9.Google Scholar
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Rist, Curtis. “Why We’ll Never Run Out of Oil.” Discover 20 (June 1999): 80–87.Google Scholar
Ryser, Jeff. “Hot Play in the Gulf.” Texas Business (3 Aug. 1995): 3–5.Google Scholar
Sandrea, Ivan. “Deepwater Oil Discovery Rate May Have Peaked; Production Peak May Follow in 10 Years.” Oil & Gas Journal (26 July 2004): 18–23.Google Scholar
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