Canyon Reef Oil Field, Scurry County's


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Marker Number: 4622 
Marker Title: Scurry County's Canyon Reef Oil Field 
Index Entry: Canyon Reef Oil Field, Scurry County's 
Address: College St. at Courthouse 
City: Snyder 
County: Scurry 
UTM Zone: 14 
UTM Easting: 320194 
UTM Northing: 3621163 
Subject Codes: OL 
Year Marker Erected: 1967 
Designations: na 
Marker Location: College Street at Courthouse Square, Snyder. 
Marker Size: 27" x 42" 
Repairs Completed:  
Marker Text: Attracted international attention by size and engineering achievements.
 During 1948 four widely dispersed wells penetrated the Canyon Reef Formation at 
depth of 6,500 feet. Soon more than 2,000 wells defined gigantic fields which 
contained an estimated four billion barrels of oil. This rapid drilling involved
 thousands of people--contractors, drillers, engineers, geologists, lawyers, office workers,
 roughnecks, roustabouts, suppliers. Oil companies poured $300,000,000 into the operations.
 By 1951 engineers saw that only 20% of Canyon Reef oil could be produced in competitive
 operations, but recovery could be doubled by pressure maintenance in unitization. 
Successful formation of Diamond "M", Sacroc, Sharon Ridge Canyon, and Cogdell Units
 and initiation of fluid injection were events of immense significance. 
The programs showed by 1955 that free American enterprise can work out voluntarily the
 most modern and efficient conservation procedures. Thus Scurry County--with a petroleum 
industry dating from shallow wells in 1923--has become a pioneer in oil history, and 
is assured a high level, stable economy for many future decades. (1967)