JANUARY 1980
Agip and Union Texas report plans to undertake a drilling program offshore Jamaica as part of Jamaica’s new pro-business initiative under new Prime Minister Edward Seaga (Can you visualize Reggae Petroleum gas stations proudly displaying a picture of Bob Marley?).
Hopes run high that President-elect Reagan’s recent visit with Mexico President Lopez Portillo may improve relations between the two countries, thus leading to increased oil imports to the U.S., the resolution of fishing disputes, and the ceding of a chunk of the GOM to the Mexicans.
U.S. active rig count: 3,305
JANUARY 1990
Persian Gulf ties to the former Communist bloc are growing, as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the U.A.E. commit to lending the U.S.S.R. $4 billion to accelerate reformation within the Communist Party, including aid for the crumbling Soviet oil industry.
Pointing to the extent of the U.S. lead additive for gasoline phaseout, elemental lead in gasoline fell to 3.9 million lb in 1989 from 462 million lb in 1969. (How many of you can remember the choices to be made at a “service station,” such as: 1) leaded or unleaded? 2) full-service or self- service? 3) check your tires?)
Light sweet crude: $27.42/bbl
U.S. active rig count: 1,108
JANUARY 2000
The UK Offshore Operators Association reports plans to move ahead with the second phase of a joint industry initiative to deal with accumulations of drill cuttings on the seabed, namely, would it be better to lift those cuttings and reinject them into wells, bring them ashore for treatment, or just leave them in place?
President Clinton orders the U.S. Coast Guard and DOE to take extra steps to keep U.S. harbors free of ice so that ships and barges can bring in heating oil and avoid heating oil price surges resulting from these bottlenecks, as experienced a year ago in New England.
Light sweet crude: $27.83/bbl
Natural gas: $8.70/MMbtu
U.S. active rig count: 1,107
THE REST OF THE YARN
This month, the legion of Lone Star playboys continues to grow.
After divorcing Texas playboy Bill Moss, actress Ann Miller married another one of the legion, namely, Texas oilman Arthur Cameron, who purchased Louis B. Mayer’s Benedict Canyon mansion and bought one of the largest private estates in the desert outside Palm Springs. On their European honeymoon, Cameron summoned a man from Harry Winston, the New York jeweler, and bought Miller a 20-carat white diamond. Cameron, however, was a serial philanderer, and Miller left him several months later upon finding him engaged in an impromptu pool party with 17 young ladies in bikinis.
Houston oilman W. Howard Lee, meanwhile, romanced and married Hedy Lamarr, and the two lived for several years in River Oaks, until their divorce. Afterward, Lee married Gene Tierney. One of Clint Murchison’s closest friends, Dallas oilman Buddy Fogelson, wed Greer Garson at his New Mexico ranch in 1949. A seven-time Academy Award nominee—she won the 1943 Oscar for best actress in Mrs. Miniver—Garson eased away from Hollywood after her marriage and settled into a long, quiet life in Dallas with Fogelson, who died in 1987. She became a beloved Texas philanthropist, endowed the Greer Garson Theatre at Southern Methodist University, and died in 1996.
Next month, McCarthy endures a series of make- or-break meetings with his creditors.
HISTORY QUIZ
What was the term used by the Soviets to describe the political movement for reformation within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1980’s?
If you would like to participate in this month’s quiz, e-mail your answer to contest@spe.org by noon, January 15. The winner, who will be chosen randomly from all correct answers, will receive a $50 restaurant gift card, courtesy of the ProTechnics Division of Core Laboratories.
ANSWER TO DECEMBER'S QUIZ
Myron Kinley was the first person to extinguish an oil well fire with explosives. He trained Red Adair, Boots Hansen, and Coots Matthews, who applied his techniques to extinguish the fires of Kuwait. He was awarded The Order of The Rising Sun by Emperor
Hirohito of Japan for extinguishing a gas well fire in 48 hours that had blazed for more than a week.
CONGRATULATIONS TO DECEMBER’S WINNER
Jim McNicol with Archer Oiltools