Lakeview Gusher

Under the name Lakeview Gusher Number One is known as the largest registered Blowout ( " gusher " ) in the history of oil production in the United States. It flowed in 1910 estimated 1,400,000 m³ ( 1,230,000 tons ) of crude oil.

The site of the accident is about 800 m east of the Taft - Maricopa Highway California State Route 33 located in the Midway - Sunset Oil Field in Kern County, about 40 km southwest of Bakersfield, California.

At the site of the incident is now a memorial stone with a bronze plaque ( " California Historical Landmark number 485" ).

Background

The Lakeview Oil Company began on 1 January 1909, the bore of the Lakeview - Number -One oil well. Over the holes initially only natural gas was found. Lakeview was at this time a partnership with the Union Oil Company, which wanted to build on the site of storage tanks.

The blowout began on 14 March 1910, when the hole reached a depth of 740 m. The drilling technology of the early 20th century knew no safety devices such as blowout preventers that can prevent in modern drilling in most cases a blowout. Therefore, the drilling equipment was the high pressure in the Lakeview source not withstand, and it came to the discharge of large quantities of oil.

The rim of the well consisted of steel tubes, which both served to guide the drill later for pumping the oil. The pressure of the blowout meant that part of the enclosure has been ejected from the borehole. As a result of the outbreak flocked about 1,400,000 m³ ( 9,000,000 barrels) of oil from the bore until the outbreak could be brought after 18 months in September 1911 under control.

The initial daily discharge rate was 2,990 m³ ( 18,800 barrels) and reached peak values ​​of about 14,000 m³ ( 90,000 barrels). This created a crude oil flow, which sprang from the source to the outflow of workers of the oil field with dams and dikes could be stemmed from sandbags. During the 18-month duration of the blowout, the source did not catch fire.