TEXAS: PORT ARTHUR MUSEUM OF THE GULF COAST

 November 24, 2021

Ninety miles east of Houston is the town of Port Arthur, population 54,000 and home to the largest oil refinery in the United States. Oil refineries dominate the horizon.

Our destination was the Museum of the Gulf Coast, which specializes in just what its name implies--the history of the Gulf Coast.

I stopped to say hello to their welcoming mascot.

Nope, no cavities.

TEXAS, MIDLAND AND ODESSA: THE PERMIAN BASIN PETROLEUM MUSEUM, GEORGE W. BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME, THE MIDLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND THE ODESSA JACKRABBITS

 March 21, 2021

After enjoying our drive through Texas Tech, our delicious lunch, and our visit to the Buddy Holly Center, we headed to Midland, about 120 miles due south of Lubbock. Midland is not located in mid-Texas as its name implies, but rather in West Texas. It was named "Midland" because it was founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the railroad that connected those two cities. Its biggest claim to fame has to do with THE Bush family, but more on that later.

Midland is located in the Permian Basin, a large sedimentary basin  that includes a lot of oil fields, so it makes sense that Midland is the home of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, which didn't sound all that exciting, but we needed a break on a long drive, so we decided to stop there. 

Appropriately, the museum has an oil rig in its front yard.

Posts outside of the museum are topped with engraved granite markers that give a timeline of oil production from 400 BC to the present day.

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN: SITES AROUND TOWN

Warning. Long post, but LOTS of pictures, not so much text.

1. THE WORLD'S FIRST INDUSTRIALLY DRILLED OIL WELL

. . . is in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Who knew??

This well hit oil at only 21 meters deep. By 1901, Baku was producing 11 million tons (212,000 barrels) of oil per day, more than 50% of what was being produced worldwide. During the first year of the World War, Azerbaijan produced a record 25.4 million tons of oil. Hitler aimed to capture Baku so as to control this vast resource, but the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad in 1942 forced a retreat from the area, and Hitler never realized his goal. 

Production declined after the war, but oil production is back up now, and crude oil is pumped to Europe in the second-longest oil pipeline in the world, which has the capacity to transport 1 million barrels/day.  These days they are producing about 875,000 barrels of oil/day. That doesn't touch the 10 million barrels/day produced by the US in 2107, but remember, it's a country the size of South Carolina. 

Considering all the natural gas leaking out of cracks in the rocks in the area, it shouldn't be a surprise that there is plenty of petroleum down there as well.

Marco Polo wrote: "Near the Georgian border [somewhere in Azerbaijan] there is a spring from which gushes a stream of oil, in such abundance that a hundred ships may load there at once. This oil is not good to eat; but it is good for burning and as a salve for men and camels affected with itch or scab. Men come from a long distance to fetch this oil . . . ."