 | Antun Lučić (Anthony F. Lucas born in Split 1855, died in Washington 1921) is the father of petroleum industry. He discovered the first major gusher in Texas, The Lucas gusher, flowing at the rate of 80-100,000 barrels per day. It blew in January 1901. About 50,000 people came to see it. This meant the earliest massive exploitation of oil and petroleum in the world. Eighteen m. high granite obelisk, built in honour to the Lucas gusher, Spindletop, contains the following lines: "On This Spot on the Tenth Day of the Twentieth Century a New Era in Civilization Began." In 1936 The American Institute for Geological and Metallurgical Investigations founded a prize named after him: Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal. With this article we mark 110 years from this event of worldwide importance. |
the father of petroleum engineering
This is one of the most important events in the history of the petroleum industry.
| Antun Lucic (americanized name is Anthony F. Lucas; born in Split 1855, died in Washington 1921) discovered the first major gusher in Texas, The Lucas gusher, flowing at the rate of 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day. It blew in January 1901. About 50,000 people came to see it. This meant the earliest massive exploitation of oil and petroleum in the world. Antun Lucic, known as Anthony F. Lucas (F. = Francis is after his father Franjo, mariner and shipbuilder from the island of Hvar) believed that the nearby Spindletop hill, near the town of Beaumont, covered a vast pool of oil. His company became one of the first oil companies in Texas. Antun Lucic was a mining engineer who completed his studies at the Polytechnic institute in Graz, Austria, where also his fellow countryman Nikola Tesla later studied. By 1902, as many as 285 wells were operating on Spindletop Hill and over 600 oil companies had been chartered (the population of Spindletop sprang from 8,000 in 1901 to 60,000 in 1902, i.e. in just a year!). In this way Captain Anthony Lucas enabled the United States to surpass Russia as the world's leading oil producer. With the Lucas gusher, a black-gold rush began, and fortune-seekers from all over the world poured into Texas. Over time, Houston became a center of the oil industry, and a captive of the British-dominated global oil cartel.
...This picture was taken four days after the oil began to gush. The well went wild for ten days, pouring approximaly 800,000 barrels of oil, and making an oil lake covering some 100 acres of land, before Captain Lucas was able to cap it. Great quantities of oil went as far as Port Arthur, sixteen miles below, on the coast. see [Soric, p 97]) Anthony Lucas (Antun Lucic) invented the so called "Christmas tree", which is the system of valves and pipes installed on the wellhead to harness a gusher. The "Christmas tree" is connected to the piping for transportation or storage of oil.
Christmas tree invented by Anthony Lucas
Anthony Lucas and drilling crew,
Spindle Top, congestion of derrics in 1901-1902 (photo from [McBeth])
Antun Lucic (Anthony Lucas) on the left (photo from [McBeth]) The naval fuel board program adopted by the USA Government in 1901 specified that all the vessls should be equiped for the burning of oil as fuel. Railroads in increasing number were using it, and manufacturers were substituting it for coal and gas. At that time the automobile industry just began to develop, and the importance of Lucic's discovery for its further expansion was enormous.
Spindle Top in 1902. A forest of derricks, the might of America, erected around the original Lucas well. Antun Lucic is also considered to be the founder of modern petroleum reservoir engineering. He was consulting engineer in USA, Russia, Mexico, Algeria, and Romania. As an expert in mining he was elected the life long chairman of the American Committee for Oil and Gas (later called Petroleum Division, more information). Some of the most important inventions of Anthony F. Lucas, that are still in use, are:
In 1936 The American Institute for Geological and Metallurgical Investigations founded a prize named after him: Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal.
A museum with 18 m high granite obelisk was built in honour to the Lucas gusher in Spindletop. There is also 1,5 m granite monument of Lucic with inscription saying that his discovery revolutionarized industry and transport,... and changed lives of people in the whole world.
18 m high granite obelisk, built in honour
In 1943 Lucas' son and daughter-in-law established charitable foundation in his name. Antun Lucic (Anthony F. Lucas) is placed among 200 of most deserving Americans in the course of the entire history of the USA. There are a street and an Elementary school bearing his name in the City of Beaumont, Texas.
As to his nationality, it is often mistakenly described as Austrian, and sometimes even Italian (like in Who is Who in America, where there is also another mistake - that he was born in Trieste). On his grave in Rock Creek, Washington, he is said to be of Illiric origin, where Illiric is a standard name for Croatian. For more information about Anthony Lucas see here, and also
Source www.croatianhistory.net |
| Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal Society of Petroleum Engineers, USA The Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal honors distinguished achievement in the identification and development of new technology and concepts that will enhance the process of finding or producing petroleum. Recipients of this award automatically become Distinguished Members.
About Anthony F. Lucas Anthony F. Lucas was born as Antun Lučić in Croatia in 1855, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. He was a mining engineer, often referred to as the father of petroleum engineering. His successful drilling of the famous Spindletop field near Beaumont, TX was one of the most important events in the history of the petroleum industry. The Spindletop discovery in 1901 marked the beginning of the modern petroleum industry. It ushered in the development of the Texas Gulf Coast as a major oil-producing area. Lucas’s advanced knowledge of petroleum engineering principles was revealed when he revisited Spindletop in 1904 to find that 1200 wells had been drilled on 200 acres. Only 100 of these wells were still producing. Lucas then stated that a half dozen wells would have produced more than all those drilled, and he charged that the reservoir had been damaged by indiscriminate drilling activities. Established in 1936 by AIME as the first major Institute Award to recognize contributions in petroleum engineering, the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal is SPE’s major technical award. It recognizes those responsible for developing new technology and concepts and demonstrating distinguished achievement in improving the technique and practice of finding and producing petroleum. The Medal may be presented to a non-member. Prepared on the basis of the following source: Society of Petroleum Engineers, USA |
one of the most important events in the history of the petroleum industry.
Past recipients of the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, USA:
| 2011 - Curtis Whitson 2010 - Christine A. Ehlig-Economides 2009 - Mukul M. Sharma 2008 - Tony Settari 2007 - S.M. Farouq Ali 2006 - Keith K. Millheim 2005 - Stephen A. Holditch 2004 - Gary A. Pope 2003 - W. John Lee 2002 - Abbas Firoozabadi 2001 - Ian M. Cheshire 2000 - Jean-Laurent Mallet 1999 - Michael J. Fetkovich 1998 - Andre G. Journel 1997 - John C. Calhoun Jr. 1996 - Larry W. Lake 1995 - Fred I. Stalkup 1994 - Lawrence B. Curtis 1993 - Michael Prats 1992 - Lincoln F. Elkins 1991 - Donald W. Peaceman 1990 - George W. Govier 1989 - Keith H. Coats 1987 - Eugene R. Brownscombe 1986 - Henry J. Welge 1985 - Nick Van Wingen 1984 - Joseph E. Warren 1983 - Henry J. Ramey Jr. 1982 - Paul B. Crawford 1981 - Claude R. Hocott 1980 - R.C. Earlougher 1979 - Donald L. Katz 1978 - Gustave E. Archie 1977 - Marshall B. Standing | 1976 - J. Clarence Karcher 1975 - Michel T. Halbouty 1974 - William L. Horner 1972 - Albert G. Loomis 1971 - M. King Hubbert 1970 - Henri G. Doll 1969 - Clarence J. Coberly 1968 - A.F. van Everdingen 1967 - John E. Sherborne 1966 - Lloyd E. Elkins 1965 - Ralph D. Wyckoff 1964 - William Hurst 1963 - Lyon F. Terry 1962 - John E. Elliott 1961 - Edwin O. Bennett 1960 - Albert C. Rubel 1959 - John T. Hayward 1958 - Carl E. Reistle Jr. 1957 - John E. Brantly 1956 - Stuart E. Buckley 1954 - Bruce H. Sage 1953 - Morris Muskat 1950 - William E. Wrather 1948 - Wallace E. Pratt 1947 - William N. Lacey 1946 - James O. Lewis 1944 - Charles V. Millikan 1943 - John R. Suman 1941 - Marcel Schlumberger 1941 - Conrad Schlumberger 1940 - Everette L. DeGolyer 1938 - Henry L. Doherty 1936 - J. Edgar Pew |
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