The Wild Mary Sudik gusher was an oil well blowout that took place on March 26, 1930 in what is now

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, USA. The gusher from Mary Sudik No. 1 well received extensive media coverage and was the subject of daily radio reports by

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and

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s that were shown in movie theaters. The gusher flowed for eleven days before it was capped on the third try. Mary Sudik No. 1 well was developed by the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company on the property of Vincent and Mary Sudik. The well, located about to the southeast of the present intersection of Interstate 240 and Bryant Avenue, to the south of the Oklahoma City center, blew out when the drilling crew underestimated well pressures in the newly developed Wilcox formation, producing 20,000 barrels of oil and of gas per day from the well. According to the well completion report, it produced 15,441 barrels of oil in a test run for 13 hours and 15 minutes. The crew had neglected to keep sufficient drilling mud in the well, and did not use a safety head, contrary to the accepted practice of the time, running the well "wild." The initial flow of gas from the well changed to oil after about a day, with oil fountaining up to into the air. Oil vapor blew in the wind as far as

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, to the south. A safety zone was established around the well to prevent fire. The American Iron and Machine Company was engaged to cap the well, led by superintendent H. M. Myracle. The first attempt failed after twelve hours, but a second attempt restricted the flow, and oil was diverted into a pit until a final seal could be effected. A total of 211,600 barrels of oil was recovered from the vicinity of the well, and as many as 800,000 barrels were believed to have been wasted. Once controlled, Mary Sudik No. 1 was the most productive well in the world in 1930. The blowout, and a similar gas well blowout in Oklahoma City the day after the Mary Sudik well was brought under control, stimulated the development and use of

blowout preventer A blowout preventer (BOP) (pronounced B-O-P, not "bop") is a specialized valve or similar mechanical device, used to seal, control and monitor oil and gas wells to prevent blowouts, the uncontrolled release of crude oil or natural gas from a w ...

s as standard equipment in petroleum well drilling, and resulted in greater regulation of well drilling in Oklahoma City. The Sudiks were

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immigrants who moved to Oklahoma from Nebraska in 1904 to buy their dairy farm. They expanded the farm to two additional quarter sections, one of which, bought in 1924, was the site of the wild well. Mary had been the first to sign the well lease, so the wells on the property were named after her. Mary Valish Sudik, a modest woman, was offered roles in a vaudeville tour and a movie. She and her husband instead moved into town and lived quietly on the

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

from the thirteen wells on their property. Mary died in 1942, her obituary appearing on the front page of the ''

Daily Oklahoman ''The Oklahoman'' is the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma, United States, and is the only regional daily that covers the Greater Oklahoma City area. The Alliance for Audited Media (formerly Audit Bureau Circulation) lists it as the 59th large ...

''. Vincent died in 1940. Their son Orie was killed while working on a well in the Moore oil field of Oklahoma in 1945. The Mary Sudik No. 1 well was finally plugged on June 22, 1974 by the operator,

Cities Service Oil Company A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

.Mary Sudik No. 1 plugging report
- Publisher: Oklahoma Corporation Commission

References

External links

Wild Mary Sudik well
at the American Oil & Gas Historical Society {{Coord, 35, 23, 06, N, 97, 27, 14, W, type:landmark_region:US, display=title 1930 in the environment History of Oklahoma City Oil spills in the United States Oil wells in Oklahoma