Marathon Oil Company Discovery Well
Iraan, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Opening one of greatest oil fields in the world, Mid-Kansas Oil and Gas Company (a subsidiary wholly owned by the Ohio Oil Company, whose name has now been changed to Marathon Oil Company) brought in the I. G. Yates "A" No. 1 well on October 29, 1926. The well at the shallow depth of 1,150 feet had a rated potential daily flow of 72,869 barrels. Previously oil men had said: "You won't find any oil west of the Pecos." This did not stop the work of Mid-Kansas Oil and Gas Company and its partner, Transcontinental Oil Company, later acquired by Marathon Oil Company. The strike was sensational. Scarcely more than a year later, the Yates field had 100 wells--two of which had higher yields than Yates No. 1. Under the 20,000-acres Ira G. Yates ranch and adjoining lands lay one of the largest oil reserves in the world. The many developers voluntarily adopted proration. Their plans for allocating and restricting Yates fields production were approved by the Texas Railroad Commission in 1928. This was the first complete commission in 1928. This was the first complete proration of an oil field in the state --and an important milestone in petroleum conservation. The Yates field now has 607 wells.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On October 29, 1926, Mid-Kansas Oil and Gas Company brought in the I. G. Yates "A" No. 1 well at just 1,150 feet, with a rated potential of nearly 73,000 barrels a day—shattering the old wisdom that no oil lay west of the Pecos. Within a year the Yates field held a hundred wells over one of the world's largest reserves, and in 1928 its operators adopted the state's first complete proration under the Texas Railroad Commission.
Why it matters
The Yates discovery opened the vast Permian Basin and pioneered the conservation-minded regulation that would shape the American oil industry for generations.
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Related people
- · Ira G. Yates
Related events
- · Yates oil field discovery, 1926
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Iraan
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In 1922, three businessmen leased drilling rights on West Texas ranch land, and after two dry holes the I.G. Yates No. 1 well blew in on October 28, 1926, igniting a boom. Ira Yates surveyed a townsite that took its name — Iraan — from a contest-winning blend of his and his wife Ann's names, with the winner awarded a city lot. During the boom days a free-lance writer named V.T. Hamlin lived here and created the caveman comic strip "Alley Oop," now honored in a local park.
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