Energy · 1947

Offshore oil drilling

Kerr-McGee drills a well out of sight of land in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1947 Kerr-McGee completed the first productive well beyond sight of land, about 17 km off Louisiana. Offshore platforms later opened the North Sea and deepwater fields and now produce roughly 30% of the world's oil.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Spindletop gusher 1901

What it led to 3

Liquefied natural gas shipping 1959
Shale gas revolution 1998
Floating offshore wind 2017

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Crude oil price since 1861 Latest: 435 current US$ per m3 (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Fossil fuel consumption Latest: 144k TWh (2025) Source: Our World in Data