Yates Oil Field

The field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, making it one of the largest in the United States, and in 1998 it remains productive, though at a diminished rate.

Native vegetation, where present – for much of the area is exposed rock – consists of desert shrubs, grasses, and scrubby live oaks.

[1][5] The land which the field underlies was owned by Ira and Ann Yates, ranchers in the hardscrabble Trans-Pecos region of West Texas (the town of Iraan is named for them: Ira+Ann).

1-A, on the Yates ranch into the San Andres formation approximately 1,000 feet (300 m) below ground surface, and hit a rich productive zone, producing a "gusher" – an uncontrolled spew of crude oil, under intense pressure, into the air.

Early drillers needed huge holding tanks, pipelines, or rail sidings; until these could be built or supplied, no oil could be transported to buyers.

Humble Pipe Line Co., an ancestor of Exxon Company, was the nearest to have any facilities at all – a pipeline that went to McCamey, in Upton County, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the production area.

Humble began construction of a 55,000-barrel (8,700 m3) storage tank to hold the oil, but even that was insufficient for the colossal quantities of crude that flowed from the field.

[9] Environmental standards were lax to nonexistent in the early days of the industry, and poorly constructed wells in the field often leaked crude from unsealed portions of the casing.

[9] When the field was discovered, an instant boomtown sprung up in the form of tents and shanties around a red barn on the Yates Ranch, about three miles (5 km) south of present-day Iraan.

This town, unsurprisingly named Redbarn, acquired a post office, general store, hotel, filling station, and restaurant, but never had a permanent population greater than 75.

Ira Yates, owner of the ranch and oil field, donated 152 acres (0.62 km2) of his land for the townsite of Iraan, which town survives to the present day.

By 1966 production had diminished due to depletion of many of the major reservoirs, and between 1968 and 1972 Marathon operated a waterflooding program on the west side of the field, along with a CO2-injection regime.

Careful study of the fractured nature of the oil-bearing geologic units allowed operators to shut down almost 400 of the least efficient wells without diminishing the overall output of the field.