The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981 Page: 295
502 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Texas Railroad Commission
1930os progressed, some companies learned to use it to make other
chemicals.6 During the 193os, however, the major conservation prob-
lem caused by the exploitation of unassociated gas arose from the fact
that it was used to produce a liquid known as "condensate" gasoline.
When natural gas is allowed to expand suddenly, as it does when let
out of a well-bore, somewhat less than io percent of its contents will
condense into a liquid almost indistinguishable from refined gasoline.
This process is called "stripping" gas. Condensate gasoline could be
used like the refined variety to power automobiles. Companies could
make a profit by setting up over a gas field, marketing the stripped
condensate, and simply releasing ("venting") the nine-tenths remain-
der into the atmosphere.
As it was soon discovered that natural gas in the air poses a deadly
hazard, producers began to run it up pipes and burn it at the top. The
flames from these pipes are known as "flares." The practice of retrieving
the 1o percent of stripped condensate and flaring the rest became the
object of a legal and political struggle in Texas that lasted for the first
five years of the 1930s.8
Stripping-and-flaring of unassociated gas clearly presents a waste of
natural resources. For a second type of gas production, however, the
conservation problem is more complex. This type of production in-
volves what is known as "casinghead gas."
While gas may be found without oil, the reverse is not true. Oil-
bearing rock formations often contain a "gas-cap" at the top, and oil in
underground reservoirs always contains dissolved gas. When the oil is
extracted, the dissolved gas is an inevitable by-product. There is no
known method of producing oil without simultaneously bringing up
large quantities of gas. About 30 percent of the gas that is produced is
of this "associated" type?
Within the well, the petroleum travels to the surface inside a metal
Interviews; Stockton, Gas in Texas, 17, 27-35, 72-75; Kendall Beaton, Enterprise in Oil:
A History of Shell in the United States (New York, 1957), 502.
7Efforts have been made to quantify the amount of gas used as a proportion of that
produced, but unreliable records make all such results extremely imprecise. See Stockton,
Gas in Texas, 24, 58, 99, 1o7; for a discussion of the technology and economics of natural
gas liquids, see ibid., 55-88.
8Interviews; Maurice Cheek, "Legal History of Conservation of Gas in Texas," Ameri-
can Bar Association, Section of Mineral and Natural Resources Law, Legal History of
Conservation of Oil and Gas: A Symposium (Chicago, 1938), 269-285.
9Stockton, Gas in Texas, 5.295
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981, periodical, 1980/1981; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101225/m1/343/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.