EasternOyster_OilGasandOysters_Benefield_Lynn_SeabrookTX_27January2022_Reel4089.mp3

Lynn Benefield [00:00:00] I don't know exactly when the heavy drilling started in Galveston Bay. I would say probably in the '40s or maybe a little earlier. But, well, I do know it was earlier because on one of the characteristics, they would apply for a permit to put a well down. And you know, the, the agencies would look at it, say, "Well, there's no reefs there", and but they would have to come in and build what would be shell pads.

Lynn Benefield [00:00:33] And early on, they, they had to have one pad for the, the well that was drilled and another pad for, they had some type of structure that they used for generating power or something. Anyway they had to have two pads down.

Lynn Benefield [00:00:53] And they would put down two acres of, guess what? Shell! And what they were doing, they were building artificial reefs out there.

Lynn Benefield [00:01:05] But the problem being if they, they drilled a well and it become a producing well, whether gas or oil, they'd put a structure down. And then they'd have Brown & Root or one of the other companies come in and lay the line to the distribution platform and then on into the shoreline, you know, with a larger line with other products from the other wells.

Lynn Benefield [00:01:37] But there was wells all over the bay. And then when they got to have self-contained drilling rigs, they'd just have a one, about an acre, of shell to put down. So the single little reefs like that were the newer ones, and the old ones were the two-acre reefs.

Lynn Benefield [00:01:57] But if things on the public reef were, were, you know, over-worked, these oyster boats would come in and they'd start harvesting oysters off these little reefs that surrounded the, the well structure was sitting on.

Lynn Benefield [00:02:16] And if the line had not been buried going right up to the structure and inside of it, well, quite often those dredges would hang the, the pipe and, and, and people'd say, "Well, they didn't break the pipes."

Lynn Benefield [00:02:34] Well, they could. They did!

Lynn Benefield [00:02:36] And if it was oil, well, you'd have a spill out in the bay. And if it was gas, you'd have the bubbling and some, you know, oil traces too.