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However an increasing amount of oil is identified and extracted from off-

shore (submerged) oil wells. Around 1891, the first submerged oil wells were

drilled from platforms in Ohio.

In 1887, the first submerged oil wells in salt water were drilled in California.

H.L. Williams built a 300-foot long wharf out into the Pacific from the beach near

Summerland, Calif., and built a drilling rig on it. The idea caught on with local

entrepreneurs, and wharves with drilling rigs blossomed along the West Coast,

st
some stretching more than 1,200 feet into the Pacific. Five years later in 1896 ~ 1
ocean submerged oil wells drilled in California (fig. 1.3).

Figure 1.3 – First ocean submerged oil wells drilled in California

Gulf Oil drilled the first offshore well detached from shore in Caddo Lake,

Louisiana, in 1911. First true “off-shore” oil rig set on a fixed

platform in 14 feet of water (but only 1 mile off-shore) (fig. 1.4).

A fixed wooden platform built of cypress pilings topped with pine boards was

used to develop a field just one mile off the Louisiana shore in 14 feet of water.

The platform held a land-type drilling rig.

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