Gulf Coast Oil Research Articles

Shift Work and Sleep Disturbance in the Oil Industry.

Rotating shift work is common in high-hazard industries, despite documented associations with sleep disturbance and impairment. In the oil industry, where rotating and extended shift schedules are used to staff safety-sensitive positions, work intensification and increasing overtime rates have been broadly documented over the last few decades. Research on the impacts of these work schedules on sleep and health has been limited for this workforce. We examined sleep duration and quality among rotating shift workers in the oil industry and explored associations between schedule characteristics, sleep, and health outcomes. We recruited hourly refinery workers from the West and Gulf Coast oil sector members of the United Steelworkers union. Impaired sleep quality and short sleep durations were common and associated with health and mental health outcomes common among shift workers. Shortest sleep durations followed shift rotations. Early rise and start times were associated with shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality. Drowsiness and fatigue-related incidents were common. We observed lower sleep duration and quality and increased overtime in 12-hour rotating shift schedules. These long workdays with early start times may reduce available hours for quality sleep; here they were associated with reduced exercise and leisure activity which correlated with good sleep. This safety-sensitive population appears severely impacted by poor sleep quality, which has broader implications for process safety management. Later start times, slower rotation, and a reconsideration of two-shift schedules are interventions to consider for improving sleep quality among rotating shift workers.

Fraud in disaster: Rethinking the phases

This paper reexamines the link between disasters and crime to argue that the relationship between the two becomes more evident once the diachronic nature of the disaster is specified. The first section appraises the literature on crime and disaster and calls for more attention to this topic. The subsequent sections of the paper present multiple evidence for the occurrence of crimes and fraud in disasters and the results of preliminary empirical research using U.S. Department of Justice information on the reported white collar and other types of crimes occurring in the aftermath of the Katrina Hurricane and the British Petroleum Gulf Coast oil spill. The findings indicate that crimes and frauds occur during the earliest phases of disasters and that the probability for the occurrence of costlier crimes, akin to white-collar crime, increases, as time elapses. The conclusion calls for a reconceptualization of the phases of disasters.

Chemical analysis of bitumen paint on classic period Central Veracruz ceramics, Mexico

Black paint is common on Remojadas style ceramics of Central Veracruz, Mexico, dating to 100BCE–CE 600. An early study considers this paint to be Moraceae latex, with some bitumen. The present study analyzes 20 samples from the site of La Joya, from the Remojadas culture: paint from 14 jars and 5 figurines, and 1 residue of bitumen processing inside a jar, using standard bitumen analysis combining Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry and δ13C isotopic values, and compares the results to published data from Gulf Coast oil seeps. The conclusion is that the samples are bitumen without latex added, which probably comes from the same local seep group. The study provides a third set of data for bitumen analysis in the Americas, offering comparable information on this important but little known resource in the ancient cultures of the New World.

Advancing environmental health surveillance in the US through a national human biomonitoring network.

The United States lacks a comprehensive, nationally-coordinated, state-based environmental health surveillance system. This lack of infrastructure leads to: • varying levels of understanding of chemical exposures at the state & local levels • often inefficient public health responses to chemical exposure emergencies (such as those that occurred in the Flint drinking water crisis, the Gold King mine spill, the Elk river spill and the Gulf Coast oil spill) • reduced ability to measure the impact of public health interventions or environmental policies • less efficient use of resources for cleaning up environmental contamination Establishing the National Biomonitoring Network serves as a step toward building a national, state-based environmental health surveillance system. The Network builds upon CDC investments in emergency preparedness and environmental public health tracking, which have created advanced chemical analysis and information sharing capabilities in the state public health systems. The short-term goal of the network is to harmonize approaches to human biomonitoring in the US, thus increasing the comparability of human biomonitoring data across states and communities. The long-term goal is to compile baseline data on exposures at the state level, similar to data found in CDC's National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Barriers to success for this network include: available resources, effective risk communication strategies, data comparability & sharing, and political will. Anticipated benefits include high quality data on which to base public health and environmental decisions, data with which to assess the success of public health interventions, improved risk assessments for chemicals, and new ways to prioritize environmental health research.

Willingness to pay for shrimp attributes and evidence of stigma following the Gulf Coast oil spill

ABSTRACTMandatory labeling requirements in the United States require shrimp products to be labelled with certain credence attributes: production process and country of origin. To determine the effects of these requirements in the wake of the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill, we estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for various credence characteristics (geographic origin and production process) and physical attributes using a Becker DeGroot Marschak experimental auction. Although the results are obtained from a small convenience sample, and hence cannot be generalized, we find that participants are willing to pay premiums of $0.90–$1.23 per half-pound for domestic shrimp (regardless of production method) and $0.60–$1.03 per half-pound for wild-caught shrimp. We also find evidence that Gulf Coast shrimp are stigmatized; controlling for other characteristics, participants are willing to pay $1.03–$1.34 less per half-pound for Gulf Coast shrimp. Overall, credence attributes influence WTP more than physical attributes.

Technical Challenges for Solution Mining and Salt Cavern Storage to Meet Future Energy and Minerals Demand, And Solution Mining Research Institute's (SMRI) Role

1. Introduction Salt deposits are numerous and found in most regions of the world. The best salt deposits for both salt production and cavern storage tend to be either the thickest bedded salt deposits or salt domes. Without getting into the geology, salt domes are formed as bedded salt is deeply buried and compacted by sediment. The less dense salt rises toward the surface to form massive plugs which can be several miles in diameter by 10 miles deep. Those familiar with U.S. Gulf Coast oil and gas geology know that the Gulf region has over 500 salt domes, many of which have produced oil and gas from traps on the flanks of the domes. Both bedded salt and salt domes are of quiet but great economic importance worldwide, supplying salt as basic feedstock to many chemical production facilities, winter road deicing, water treatment, and food processing. Figure 1 shows bedded and domal salt deposits in France.

Petroleum alteration by thermochemical sulfate reduction – A comprehensive molecular study of aromatic hydrocarbons and polar compounds

Thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) alters petroleum composition as it proceeds towards the complete oxidation of hydrocarbons to CO2. The effects of TSR on the molecular and isotopic composition of volatile species are well known; however, the non-volatile higher molecular weight aromatic and polar species have not been well documented. To address this deficiency, a suite of onshore Gulf coast oils and condensates generated from and accumulating in Smackover carbonates was assembled to include samples that experienced varying levels of TSR alteration and in reservoir thermal cracking. The entire molecular composition of aromatic hydrocarbons and NSO species were characterized and semi-quantified using comprehensive GC×GC (FID and CSD) and APPI–FTICR-MS.The concentration of thiadiamondoids is a reliable indicator of the extent of TSR alteration. Once generated by TSR, thiadiamondoids remain thermally stable in all but the most extreme reservoir temperatures (>180°C). Hydrocarbon concentrations and distributions are influenced by thermal cracking and TSR. With increasing TSR alteration, oils become enriched in monoaromatic hydrocarbons and the distribution of high molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons shifts towards more condensed species with a decrease in the number of alkyl carbons. Organosulfur compounds are created by the TSR process. In addition to the increase in benzothiophenes and dibenzothiophenes noted in previous studies, TSR generates condensed species containing one or more sulfur atoms that likely are composed of a single or multiple thiophenic cores. We hypothesize that these species are generated from the partial oxidation of PAHs and dealkylation reactions, followed by sulfur incorporation and condensation reactions. The organosulfur species remaining in the TSR altered oils are “proto-solid bitumen” moieties that upon further condensation, oxidation or sulfur incorporation result in highly sulfur enriched solid bitumen, which is chemically distinct from pyrobitumen formed by thermal cracking reactions.Although TSR involves the oxidation of hydrocarbons to CO2, prior studies of TSR-altered oils have not identified intermediate products. Using NESI–FTIRC-MS, the presence and distribution of oxygenated species become evident. All oils possess minor amounts of O2 and O4 species, presumable mono- and di-naphthenic acids originating from the source. As TSR progresses, the distribution of oxygenated species shifts towards increasing species with higher oxygen content, up to O8. Similar trends are observed for the SOx species. We hypothesize that these are partially oxidized condensed hydrocarbons and that these species are likely formed by the reaction proposed by Püttmann et al. (1989) for the oxidation of PAHs associated with Kupferschiefer mineralization, whereby hydrocarbons with aryl–aryl bonds incorporate sulfur to form thiophenic species.The rate of TSR is influenced by reservoir temperature and the presence of H2S. Typically, high reservoir temperatures (>140°C) are needed for extensive TSR alteration to occur. Oil from the Gin Creek Field appears to have received a charge of H2S, presumably from TSR alteration of a down dip reservoir, which has accelerated the TSR reaction within a relatively cold reservoir (∼109°C). This condition has allowed for the generation and preservation of abundant sulfur containing species that would be thermally cracked at higher temperatures.

The Genesis of a Sensibility and the Gulf Coast Oil Disaster of 2010

Intimate biographical, urgent environmental, and political reflections come together in this aesthetically refined depth psychological excursion beyond self and subjectivity to the transpersonal field of the lumen naturae. From a fateful family car accident through reveries of childhood, school, Boy Scouts, and the influence of a local earth mother and a nature guru sent by Providence, the evolution of a Midwestern child's keen eye and ardent affection for the natural world proceeds tumultuously from art school and a crucial dissociative crisis to a singularly enchanted morning of bird watching on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. There the jarring impact of the explosive British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on the same adult personality 30 hours later and fifty miles off shore is elaborated with no small sense of horror. Colorful observations of birds, insects and plant species, habitats and locales, personal dreams and key excerpts from an old Ecuador travel journal are subtly interwoven, then highlighted by the collectively significant proclamation of fierce political will by a powerful black woman to her countless earthly children in for an era torn with war and ecological outrages. This prose poem seeks throughout to characterize the unique position of our reflective human consciousness poised between the dazzling if troubled extended world and the inwardly receding expanse of psychic space brimming with living images and struck through with myriad scintillae, the rods and cones of the imaginal retina with which we see and derive our capacity for wonder.

The Responsibilities of Olympic Sponsors? BP and the London 2012 Olympic Games

In 2008, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) announced that they had signed a $58 million (US) sponsorship agreement with British Petroleum (BP), an oil company with well-known environmental concerns and offenses. The current case is set in July 2010 amidst BP’s most recent, and largest, environmental incident. The purpose of this case is to answer a key question: What action (if any) should LOCOG take with respect to its partnership with BP given the Gulf Coast oil spill? Additionally, students are challenged to form opinions regarding the environmental and social responsibilities of an Olympic sponsor, and to develop a strategic plan and policies for Olympic partners related to their environmental and social actions in the future.

Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) One Year Following the Gulf Coast Oil Spill: Alabama and Mississippi, 2011

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling unit exploded off the coast of Louisiana, resulting in 11 deaths and the largest marine petroleum release in history. Previous oil spill disasters have been associated with negative mental health outcomes in affected communities. In response to requests from Mississippi and Alabama, potential mental health issues resulting from this event were identified by implementing a novel use of a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) in the months immediately following the Gulf Coast oil spill. This assessment was repeated one year later to determine long-term mental health needs and changes. A two-stage sampling method was used to select households, and a questionnaire including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) questions was administered. Weighted cluster analysis was conducted, and BRFSS questions were compared to the most recent BRFSS reports and the 2010 results. In 2011, 8.8%-15.1% of individuals reported depressive symptoms compared to 15.4%-24.5% of individuals in 2010, with 13.2%-20.3% reporting symptoms consistent with an anxiety disorder compared to 21.4%-31.5% of individuals in 2010. Respondents reporting decreased income following the oil spill were more likely to report mental health symptoms compared to respondents reporting no change in income. Overall, mental health symptoms were higher in the three assessment areas compared to BRFSS reports, but lower than 2010 surveys. These results suggest that mental health services are still needed, particularly in households experiencing decreased income since the oil spill.

Mental Health Needs Assessment After the Gulf Coast Oil Spill—Alabama and Mississippi, 2010

Previous oil spills and disasters from other human-made events have shown that mental health effects to the affected population are widespread and can be significant. There has been concern regarding the likelihood that existing public health surveillance was not capturing the mental health effects to the population affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill. The objectives of this study were to assess the mental health needs of coastal communities in the states of Alabama and Mississippi following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A cluster sampling methodology was used to assess the mental health status of coastal residents in three counties in Alabama four months following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and in the Gulf Coast counties in Mississippi 5.5 months after the oil spill. A total of 469 residents of the selected areas were interviewed. Between 15.4 and 24.5% of the respondents reported depressive symptoms, with 21.4-31.5% reporting symptoms consistent with an anxiety disorder, and 16.3-22.8% reporting ≥14 mentally unhealthy days within the past 30 days. Overall, there were more negative quality of life indicators and negative social context outcomes than in the state's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. Between 32.1% and 35.7% of all households reported decreased income since the oil spill, and 35.5-38.2% of all households reported having been exposed to oil. The proportion of respondents reporting negative mental health parameters in the affected Alabama and Mississippi coastal communities is higher than the proportion reported in the 2008 and 2009 BRFSS state reports, suggesting that the public health response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill should focus on mental health services in these communities.

Bucking the Odds: Organized Labor in Gulf Coast Oil Refining

100 The Journal of American History June 2012 The Gulf Coast of the United States has long been home to the world’s largest concentration of petroleum refineries and chemical plants. These sprawling, interconnected complexes of crude oil tanks, distillation columns, fractionating towers, lubricating oil units, alkylation units, dewaxing units, and monstrous catalytic “crackers” churn out the gasoline and other petroleum products that have helped sustain modern American society. Shortly after the 1901 discovery of oil at Spindletop, Texas, the region’s first large refineries, owned by Gulf Oil and Texaco, sprang up in nearby Port Arthur and Beaumont. With subsequent discoveries along the Gulf Coast, refineries spread southwest to Houston and Corpus Christi, and east to Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, Louisiana. By 1941 the Gulf Coast accounted for 28 percent of national refining capacity, rising to 32 percent by 1956, and 36 percent by 1976.1 Refineries depended on a large and stable work force—more than two hundred thousand people nationwide by 1955, in nearly three hundred refineries of all sizes in thirty-nine states—to keep the units running smoothly, around the clock. One-third of these workers were employed on the Gulf Coast, most of them concentrated in fourteen major refineries on the upper Texas coast and in Louisiana. Working-class people in the Gulf Coast region coveted refinery jobs, which were equivalent to positions in northern automobile or steel plants. Except for a brief period during World War II, these jobs went exclusively to men. Into the 1960s almost all the higher-paying skilled jobs were reserved for whites, which along the upper Gulf Coast included both Anglos and Cajuns. The jobs paid well, included generous benefits after World War I, and offered a means of upward socioeconomic mobility. Minorities, too, including African Americans as well as Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans, found desirable wage-labor work at refineries, albeit in segregated classifications. Job losses in the oil industry during the Great Depression, however, forced white and minority workers alike to organize. The union movement in oil targeted refining, the least isolated and geographically dispersed sector of the industry. As was the case across the Jim Crow South, labor organizing in refining consisted of a dual Bucking the Odds: Organized Labor in Gulf Coast Oil Refining

The Corrective Justice State

Prosecutors, federal agencies, state attorneys general, and other officers in the executive branch often shape national policy through large monetary settlements with corporations. But the debate over this kind of “regulation by deal” has changed dramatically over the past decade. Although commentators once questioned whether such settlements made for good policy or exceeded officials’ legal authority, today’s headlines instead raise questions long associated with private justice: How do state actors appropriately compensate direct victims of the gulf coast oil spill? Is the National Mortgage Foreclosure Settlement sufficiently limited to paying only those homeowners with the most “deserving” losses? The growing commitment of public resources to collecting victim compensation from corporate wrongdoers characterizes what I call a “Corrective Justice State.” Corrective justice, a concept ordinarily associated with the private law of torts, contracts, or property, differs from traditional public law approaches to compensation in three ways. Corrective justice (1) repairs discrete injuries between identifiable parties, rather than curing diffuse social harm; (2) uses wrongdoers’ funds to restore individual losses, rather than public funds to improve public welfare; and (3) favors retrospective sanctions of specific wrongdoers over prospective regulation. Increasingly, public officials justify massive settlements with the rhetoric of corrective justice to bolster new, creative applications of executive power. But that same corrective justice philosophy may poorly serve those who depend on the modern administrative state for effective regulation and compensation. To the extent the Corrective Justice State relies on discretionary settlement decisions to regulate corporate behavior, it may forgo prospective solutions among broad constituencies, with traditional democratic checks from courts and legislatures. And despite their lip-service to corrective justice — where state actors trumpet payouts financed by corporate wrongdoers for the benefit of a “deserving” class of victims — public officials often lack information required to serve parties’ specific interests in corrective justice. Government actors need to move beyond corrective justice principles to address our collective concerns. State actors may continue to pursue corrective justice when they broker large compensatory settlements, so long as they adopt more procedural safeguards for the victims they purport to serve — including more participation and judicial review. But, to address collective and diffuse problems, those same safeguards should be relaxed to account for (1) value of individual claims, (2) the diversity of interests and relief, and (3) the extent to which state action forecloses private litigation.

The Gulf Coast oil spill: Extending the theory of image restoration discourse to the realm of social media and beyond petroleum

The explosion of Transocean's Deepwater Horizon, an oil-rig licensed to BP, set in motion a chain of unfortunate events that led to BP's ruptured oil well disgorging millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Since the spill, the corporate image of BP has been severely challenged. The company has used many strategies to preserve and restore the corporate image, and has sought means to mitigate the intensity of the ongoing threat to individuals, businesses, and a delicate ecosystem. Among these means are interacting with individuals and interest groups through social media channels. Benoit's (1995) theory of image restoration discourse posits various strategies corporations use to restore their image during a crisis. The BP crisis presents an opportunity to extend the theories of image restoration to the realm of social media. Results of a content analysis showed that corrective action was the dominant image restoration strategy employed by BP in their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr pages. A high presence of negative emotions revealed that corrective action was not an effective means of swaying public opinion in favor of BP's efforts. Dominant themes in all four social media channels and audience comments in terms of dominant issues and emotions on Facebook and YouTube were also analyzed.

Negotiation Support for Environmental Disaster Management: Drama Theory II and the Survival of Louisiana's Indigenous Gulf Coast Tribes

Abstract A formal group decision and negotiation framework known as Drama Theory II(DT II) is put forth in order to systematically model environmental disasters and to examine ways to improve the resilience of Louisiana's indigenous Gulf Coast tribes that have lived on the bayous of the Mississippi delta for centuries. A mathematical treatment of key drama theoretic concepts (i.e. positions, intentions, doubts, and dilemmas) is provided, the dynamics of the drama theoretic process are discussed and theoretical results are applied to the ongoing oil spill disaster in the US Gulf Coast. While game theoretic tools have been widely applied to disaster management issues, traditional decision analysis assumes that decision-makers, options, and preferences are fixed. On the other hand, DT II, a theory of mutual interactive game design, allows for the redefinition of the conflict and emphasizes that decision-makers engage in a rational-emotional process of redefining both the game and their ‘positions’ in it until agreement on a satisfactory resolution is reached. Results show that drama theory constitutes an adaptive and powerful tool for modelling the Gulf Coast oil spill and for helping to strengthen the resilience of Louisiana's Gulf tribes which are on the brink of disaster. By identifying transformative natural resources policy options, it is shown how environmental health risks can be reduced and a more sustainable future can be promoted.

Gulf Coast oil disaster: impact on human reproduction

The catastrophic British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached the shores of the United States, along with unpredictable effects on the health of local communities. The potential impact of the disaster on female and male reproduction will be discussed in this report, to provide greater clinician awareness about the potential consequences of this calamity and to call for more research on this subject.

The President's Global Health Initiative

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SIGNATURE HEALTH POLICY INItiative is health care reform. Just as important, but less noticed, is the President’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). Building on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease—Mr Obama promised to fundamentally “restructure the US global health enterprise.” However, as the United States enters a period of severe budgetary restraint and as the president focuses his attention on domestic crises (eg, the Gulf Coast oil spill), the promise of global health reform could become illusory. That would be a serious error because global health is vital to US national interests.

Promoting Ecological Sustainability and Community Resilience in the US Gulf Coast after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

ABSTRACT On 20 April 2010, the 5000-foot-deep Macondo Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) well erupted after a blowout caused a catastrophic explosion and fire aboard the BP PLC-leased Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform (owned by Transocean Ltd.) about 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf Coast oil spill now imperils ecologically sensitive lands, affects the livelihoods of thousands of workers, and threatens a way of life that has been passed down for generations. An oil spill management Decision Support System (DSS) architecture is put forth that integrates the latest advances in MCDA and geomatics engineering in order to cope with the worst environmental disaster in US history. It is shown that policy-makers should improve the sustainability and resilience of Gulf Coast ecosystems and communities so that they are healthier and more robust than before the oil spill. Policy recommendations with respect to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill are put forth. We discuss how to best assist disrupted businesses, rehabilitate polluted ecosystems, and improve regulatory oversight of the oil and gas industry in order to prevent future oil spill disasters.

A survey of oil and gas wells in the Texas Gulf Coast, USA, and implications for geological sequestration of CO2

Subsurface sequestration of CO2 in oil and gas provinces where permanence of hydrocarbon accumulations has proven the reliability of potential traps is rightly seen as a solid option for containment of CO2 atmospheric concentrations. However, one of the most promising provinces for carbon storage in North America, the Texas Gulf Coast, has also been heavily drilled for more than a century, puncturing many otherwise perfectly sound seals (>125,000 wells over ~50,000 km2). As a result, boreholes and, in particular, older abandoned wells could be major leakage pathways for sequestered CO2. This article presents statistics on well spatial and depth distribution that have been drawn from public domain sources and relates these data to historical plugging and abandonment regulations in the Texas Gulf Coast. Surface-well density averages of 2.4 wells/km2 can be locally much higher—but also much lower in larger areas. Average well penetration density drops to 0.27 and 0.05 well/km2 below a depth of 2,440 and 3,660 m, respectively. Natural mitigating factors such as thief zones and heaving “shales” could also play a role in limiting the impact of these direct conduits to the shallow subsurface and surface.

Possible Existence of Deep-Seated Oil Deposits on Gulf Coast

Editor's Note: Originally published in AIME Transactions, this paper, which is heavily excerpted here, discusses the possibility of oil lying beneath salt domes along the US Gulf Coast. The discovery of oil in 1901 on the Spindletop dome, Texas, inaugurated a new industry on the Gulf Coast, an industry which has grown with the discovery of successive fields, until today it engages the services of thousands of workers and employs enormous capital. New fields are being discovered from time to time and doubtless some still remain to be found, though of late years, discoveries have become more infrequent. Nowadays, several hundred dry holes are drilled each year in a fruitless and blind effort to discover new fields, for as yet geologic science has developed no effectual method of locating the coastal oil deposits in advance of drilling. Moreover, despite the occasional discovery of new fields, the total production of the Gulf Coast is today no greater than it was in 1906, for the added production of the new fields has been offset by the rapid decline and more or less complete exhaustion of some of the older ones. Careful geologic work within the fields has in some cases increased the production temporarily, but has developed no really new supplies. The Gulf Coast oil industry seems to have passed its period of greatest expansion and to be declining at a fairly steady rate, and this condition is naturally viewed with alarm by the more far-sighted operators. In my opinion, the time has come for the adoption of radical and aggressive methods of prospecting; and a fraction of the money wasted yearly in drilling shallow wells in hopeless locations might well be devoted to this purpose. Many facts lead me to believe that all the salt-dome oil has had a common origin; that it has migrated up from considerable depth along lines of structural weakness; and that a deep well, properly located, stands an excellent chance of discovering the parent reservoir and thus of developing new and probably great supplies. All of the oil produced in the coastal region of Texas and Louisiana is probably associated with salt domes, though in Goose Creek, Edgerly, and one or two other fields no salt has yet been actually penetrated. As a result of the innumerable wells that have been drilled on the various domes, it is now known that a typical salt dome consists of a very thick mass of pretty pure rock salt, generally almost flat-topped, but sloping abruptly away from the rim on every side. The flat top of the salt is generally covered by rock 25 ft to several hundred feet thick, consisting chiefly of limestone, dolomite, anhydrite, or gypsum, with generally more or less sulfur. The sediments above the salt are slightly domed and those on the sides of the salt mass generally slope at angles of 30 to 60°, and in some fields at even greater angles. These sediments consist of sand, gravel, shale, and gumbo, arranged in beds so lenticular and irregular that they can seldom be correlated from one well to another.