Earlier Nigerian oil production

Chris Nation

Banned
Shell was granted a monopoly over oil production in Nigeria in 1938.

It took until 1956 for Shell to discover a commercially viable oil field at Oloibiri, and production did not start until 1958. Production was very low in the initial years, and off shore drilling did not begin until the mid-1960s.

How can this be changed, and what are the effects, both on Britain and Nigeria, of earlier oil production?
 

Reggieperrin

The discovery well was 5,000b/day at 12,000 feet if Wikipedia is to be believed. I have read that the first US well past 15,000 feet was drilled in 1920 although I am unable to find specifics. So an earlier discovery seems very practicable if anyone went looking.

Earlier (40s or 30s) oil on British Empire territory and well away from any meaningful threats would certainly make the UK govt happy and I can imagine it would attract a lot of investment. Not sure how that would play out in the sixties when independence became an issue but presumably the economy is more developed.

on searching a bit I found some more believable figures here. So still doable prewar.

1930
New deepest oil well in the world is the Standard Oil Mascot No. 1 rotary drilled to 9,629 feet at Midway-Sunset in Mar.​
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1938
New deepest oil well in the world is drilled near Wasco to a depth of 15,004 feet​
 
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ArtosStark

There was a good oil discovery in 1911 By Nigeria Bitumen at Lekki Lagoon, but the company did not have the equipment to deal with the problems of water intrusion, and also struggled with the local environment (The rainy season often saw their concession inundated with water, the swampy area and lack of infrastructure was hard to find drilling spots in) and the local communities were generally unwilling to share information that might lead to more detailed geographic knowledge. Enough support from either the local colonial government, the British government or a partnership with a larger oil company with more resources might have been enough to overcome this.
 

Reggieperrin

ArtosStark said:
There was a good oil discovery in 1911 By Nigeria Bitumen at Lekki Lagoon, but the company did not have the equipment to deal with the problems of water intrusion, and also struggled with the local environment (The rainy season often saw their concession inundated with water, the swampy area and lack of infrastructure was hard to find drilling spots in) and the local communities were generally unwilling to share information that might lead to more detailed geographic knowledge. Enough support from either the local colonial government, the British government or a partnership with a larger oil company with more resources might have been enough to overcome this.
Click to expand...
Huh, that is all new to me and a fascinating read. If I have understood the geography right then simply shifting the earliest exploration activities 400km WSW from near Lagos to near Port Harcourt might have been enough to get things rolling significantly earlier.
It’s worth noting that pre WW2 a whole lot of exploration was just gut feel and happenstance. Neither east Texas or the Arabian Peninsula were believed to contain any oil in the early thirties.
 
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