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Gushers

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Middle East Gushers

The first big gusher in the Middle East was the discovery well in 1908 at Masjed-e-Soleiman (Masjid-i-Suleiman) field in the Meidan Naftoon region of Persia. The well was drilled by William Knox D'Arcy, an Englishman who had made a fortune mining gold in Australia. He managed to secure an exclusive concession for oil exploration in most of what is now modern Iran from the Shah of Tehran in 1901, and began drilling in the southern part of the country in 1903. His big strike came shortly after 4:00 AM on the morning of May 26, 1908 when the Masjed Soleyman No. 1 well blew out at about 1180 feet, sending a column of oil 50 feet above the drilling rig. The following day, Well No. 1 tested at a rate of about 297 barrels of oil a day. The next year D'Arcy organized his holdings into the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which later became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), a predecessor of British Petroleum (BP).

Another big gusher in the Middle East was the 1927 discovery well of the Baba Gurgur field near Kirkuk, Iraq. The field is known for the Eternal Fire - a gas seep that has burned for at least 4,000 years. The discovery well was drilled by the Turkish Petroleum Company on Kurdish lands about six miles from Kirkuk. The well blew out just past 3:00 AM on morning of October 15th at 3:00 AM at a depth of about 1500 feet, and began spraying the countryside with oil. Seven hundred tribesmen were recruited to build a levee around the well to contain the oil, which created the river of oil shown in the photo below. The well was finally brought under control after eight and a half days, flowing at a rate of 95,000 barrels of oil a day.