Our HistoryMud started to bubble ... the crew backed away... suddenly there was a roar like as shot from a heavy cannon... The Hamill brothers, Al and Curt looked at the derrick floor that was in shambles... "What the hell are we going to do with the damn thing now?" "Quick get Captain Lucas, all hell is about to break loose."
In 1900, near Beaumont, Texas, he applied his pioneer knowledge of rotary drilling to drill the first deep exploration well and had the greatest petroleum blowout of that time. It was the world famous "Lucas Spindletop Gusher" which was blowing 100,000 barrels from the 10th to 19th of January 1901 and changed the history of the industry. |
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Anton Lucic was born in 1855 on the Island of Hvar. After having technical training in Austria for mining as a young Mechanical Engineer and lieutenant of the Austro-Hungarian navy, he emigrated to the U.S where he changed his name to Captain Anthony Francis Lucas. In 1893, he started to work in salt exploration and mining in Louisiana. He became the number one expert in the US for rotary salt dome drilling where he noticed the relationship between salt domes, sulfur and/or oil deposits in tertiary sediments..