The economy of Refugio County was stimulated after 1920 by discoveries of natural gas and petroleum. According to local lore, oil was first discovered in the county around 1870 near St. Mary's during the digging of a water well where it was considered a nuisance, but serious explorations did not begin until the 1910s and real product until the 1920's.
Significant gas production began about 1926, when a gas pipeline owned by the Houston Gulf Company was completed, and by that time several minor oilfields were being exploited. The opening of the Greta oilfield in 1928 demonstrated the tremendous potential for oil production in the area; in 1936 almost 9,756,000 barrels of crude were taken from wells in Refugio County.
The expansion of farming and the oil and gas industry during the first three decades of the twentieth century were reflected in the area's growing population, which rose to 2,814 by 1910, to 4,050 by 1920, and to 7,691 by 1930.
The effects of the depression were offset to some extent, however, by continuing development of petroleum and gas resources, and the population rose during the 1930s; by 1940, 10,383 people lived in the area.
By 1943 at least eleven distinct oilfields had been discovered in Refugio County, and production continued to increase well into the 1940s. Almost 25,000,000 barrels of petroleum were produced in the area in 1944, and almost 30,240,000 barrels in 1948.
Though petroleum production in the area periodically rose and fell between 1945 and 1990, the industry remained a central part of the local economy into the 1990's and now at the time of this writing into 2008.. About 19,777,000 barrels were produced in the county in 1956, 13,963,000 barrels in 1960, 18,534,000 barrels in 1965, 37,505,000 barrels in 1974, 34,788,000 barrels in 1978, and 23,524,000 barrels in 1982.
In 1990, 9,066,016 barrels were produced; by January 1, 1995, over 1,273,409,931 barrels of crude had been taken from Refugio County since discovery in 1928. Partly in response to developments in the oil and gas industry and partly because of agricultural mechanization and consolidation, the number of people living in the county fluctuated in the years just after World War II.
Estimated annual production is equal to 56,470,457,000 cubic feet of gaswell gas, 39,920 barrels of condensate, 23,483,771 barrels of crude oil, and 50,934,814,000 cubic feet of casing head gas were produced in the county. |
