This Day in History (1955): Company's Two Billionth Barrel Slated for Production Sunday

From the Feb. 16, 1955, edition of the Sun and Flare

Aramco will produce its two billionth barrel of crude oil sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Oil Operations has calculated 1:48 a.m. Sunday morning as the approximate arrival time of the two billionth barrel. But this, producing officials said, is just an estimate based on production figures through last Sunday and the needs forecast for this week.

"We could be off by as much as several hours," an Oil Operations official said. Through Sunday, the company had produced 1,994,669,356.89 barrels. Production is presently at the rate of about 900,000 barrels per day.

Aramco's one-billionth barrel was produced at 1:35 a.m. on Jan. 5, 1952. The barrel could not be pinpointed as there were a number of GOSP's producing simultaneously.

The company's first barrel for commercial usage came from the Dammam Field in Dhahran on Oct. 16, 1938.

Caption from top photo: Aramco's two billionth barrel is coming up, and Oil Operations is trying to pinpoint the exact moment it will be produced. Right now officials figure this will occur 1:48 a.m., Sunday. Calculating, left to right, are R.L. Savage, coordinator, Plants and Pipelines; Bert Beverly, manager, Exploration R.H. Zinszer, coordinator, Producing and O.A. Seager, manager, Oil Operations Department.

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