The Candeias Oil Well (C-1), discovered on December 13, 1941, is located in the municipality of
Candeias, in the interior of the state of
Bahia
Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...
.
Context and discovery
Drilled on June 30, 1941, the Candeias Oil Well 1 (C-1) was the first commercial exploration
well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
and the first oil field in Brazil.
Previously, on January 21, 1939, a well had been discovered in
Lobato, a district of
Salvador
Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to:
* Salvador (name)
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
*Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music
** ''Salvador'' ( ...
, but it was not commercially exploited. Both used the same drilling machine. Work began on April 2, 1941, but drilling only took place in June and was completed on December 31, 1941.
The exploration of oil in Brazil dates back to the government of
Pedro II, when he granted permission to the Englishman Thomas Denny Sargent to extract oil and other minerals in the south of Bahia.
In 1892, drilling was carried out by Eugênio Camargo, who only managed to extract clayey sand. In 1907, the Mineralogical Service of Brazil joined the research and increased the areas under analysis.
Landulpho Alves Refinery
In the 1940s, the Bahia Oil Workers' Union (Sindipetro) reported that the discovery and development of oil in Candeias sparked the creation of a refinery. In 1950, the Landulpho Alves Refinery (now
Mataripe Refinary), was set up in the municipality of
São Francisco do Conde
São Francisco do Conde is a municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil. São Francisco do Conde covers , and has a population of 40,245 with a population density of 150 inhabitants per square kilometer. It is located f ...
, near Candeias.
The increase in oil production led to the creation of the state-owned company Petrobras in 1953 by then president
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
, established after a popular campaign called "''
O Petróleo é Nosso
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
''" (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: Oil is Ours). Until 1965, Bahia was the only state in the country to produce oil.
After the discovery of the first well, others were found in and around Candeias. C-2, found two months after C-1, produced up to 80 barrels a day, an by 1951, it had produced 22,768.03 barrels of oil and 75.515 barrels of gas.
On June 23, 1952, President Getúlio Vargas visited Candeias, where he made his official speech in defense of the state oil monopoly and the creation of Petrobras.
Monument
The well was listed as a historical landmark by the
Artistic and Cultural Heritage Institute of Bahia
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of what ...
(IPAC), the organization responsible for preserving Bahia's memory and culture, given its importance for the construction of Petrobras. Next to the well, Petrobras built a monument to commemorate and honor the first oil workers.
See also
*
Petrobras
Petróleo Brasileiro S.A., better known by the portmanteau Petrobras (), is a state owned enterprise, state-owned Brazilian multinational corporation in the petroleum industry headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The company's name transla ...
References
{{Portal bar, Brazil, Engineering, Business
Bahia
Oil wells
Oil exploration
Petroleum in Brazil
Petrobras