Drilling Ahead: The Quest for Oil in the Deep South, 1945–2005 (review)

Historians of domestic oil-producing regions who have aimed to reach readers outside the petroleum industry as well as those within it have been inclined to play favorites. Directing attention to the earliest, the biggest, the wildest, and the woolliest episodes in exploration and development, numerous authors have written about oil in Pennsylvania, California, Oklahoma, and, of course, Texas. They have retold the stories of Drake's well, Spindletop, and East Texas many times, and with good reason: not only were these landmark events in the history of the American oil industry, but valiant wildcatters and giant gushers also supply narrative drama that company histories and geological literature lack—drama that can reach the general reader. Similarly, the excitement of oil offshore, with its spectacular discoveries and equally daunting technological challenges and environmental risks, has appealed to an increasing number of writers and readers.

But as authors are drawn to the livelier chapters of oil-industry history, significant areas are generally overlooked, even though their development resulted in major additions to national petroleum reserves. The Williston basin, for example, offers no Rocky Mountain counterpart to Spindletop, and coal-bed methane seems to make no one's pulse beat faster. For decades, oil and gas development in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida went without a chronicler, unnoticed save in industry and geological journals.

In this respect, the appearance of Dudley Hughes's Oil in the Deep South in 1993 was a breakthrough. Hughes carried his story only as far as 1945, however. His friend Alan Cockrell intends Drilling Ahead to be a sequel. Extending the story to 2005, Cockrell takes his predecessor's work as his model, using a chronological/state-by-state format. Like Hughes, Cockrell is a geologist who has focused on the Mississippi, Alabama, Florida tri-state region, and he has also worked as an independent oilman. As a result, he has significant assets as a historian of petroleum. He is thoroughly familiar with the geological problems facing those who look for oil and gas, and, having worked in the industry for thirty years, he is at home with the economic ups and downs and the technological advances that explain the timing of exploration and production. An independent oilman himself, Cockrell tells the story from an independent perspective; indeed, as he presents the story, independents are the all-important actors, the agents primarily responsible for exploration and development. Major companies play only bit parts.

As useful as an overview of Deep South petroleum development is, the chief contribution of Cockrell's study lies in the view it offers of indepen-dent oilmen at work: how they enter the industry, their backgrounds, their problems raising money and networking with other independents, and their relations with major companies. The author draws on both a wealth of interviews and his personal experience. Business historians will find much that is helpful to understanding the industry's independent sector. For a reader unfamiliar with geological and technological essentials, moreover, Cockrell offers beautifully clear and accessible explanations. On the other hand, the superabundance of detail about personalities, places, and projects can make a reader feel swamped with more information than is useful; in effect, the author has trouble seeing the forest for the trees. With respect to documentation, scholars will find the opposite problem—too little data, for Cockrell makes scant reference to sources other than interviews and the geological literature. Despite these liabilities, however, Drilling Ahead is a valuable addition to the history of the petroleum industry.