Kansas Hits Oil, Post-WWII Energy, Dental Floss and Road Safety

Plus the UK North Sea hits decline milestone and Shell Arctic drillship runs aground prep.

Jul 09, 2025

Welcome to Tuesday July 9th, pipeline pushers, lease owners, safety managers, investors, and field hands fueling America’s foundation. You’re tuned in to Petro Playback—where every date reveals how petroleum doesn’t just reflect the economy, it drives it.

From legal fights to logistics, discoveries to disasters, today’s energy milestones highlight the high-stakes choreography that powers modern civilization.

Let’s ignite the headlines from history.

🛢️ EVENT NUMBER ONE – JULY 9, 1901: Kansas Hits Oil

On this day in 1901, the first commercial oil well in Kansas was brought online near Neodesha, marking the start of a significant petroleum era in the Midwest. The strike was shallow—just over 1,000 feet—but the volume and accessibility brought rapid development.

By 1910, Kansas had thousands of producing wells and had become a strategic supplier to regional refineries. The lesson here? Energy doesn’t always erupt—it sometimes bubbles up in silence and changes a region forever.

🌍 EVENT NUMBER TWO – JULY 9, 1945: Post-WWII Energy Planning Kicks Off

With the war nearing its end, July 9, 1945, saw President Truman’s economic council begin drafting what would become a post-war national energy strategy. Their focus: how to expand infrastructure to meet rising industrial and consumer demand—especially refining, electricity generation, and synthetic fuel research.

This led to a surge in pipeline investment and gasoline standardization, helping lay the groundwork for the U.S. Interstate Highway System a decade later.

Energy security wasn’t a peacetime afterthought—it was a foundation of national rebuilding.

🔥 EVENT NUMBER THREE – JULY 9, 2004: UK North Sea Hits Decline Milestone

On this day, production reports revealed the UK’s North Sea fields had dropped below 2 million barrels/day for the first time since the 1980s, confirming that the region was entering permanent decline.

That triggered shifts in exploration budgets, offshore labor planning, and future decommissioning policies—not just for Britain, but for aging basins around the world.

It also sparked new investment in enhanced recovery, CO₂ injection, and digital monitoring—technologies now standard in places like the Gulf of Mexico and West Texas.

🚨 EVENT NUMBER FOUR – JULY 9, 2012: Shell Arctic Drillship Runs Aground Prep

In preparation for Arctic exploration in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, Shell’s Kulluk drillship ran a pre-deployment inspection on this day—revealing what would later be cited as inadequate safety and towing capabilities.

Months later, the ship would famously run aground during a storm, sparking congressional hearings and major regulatory overhauls around Arctic offshore drilling.

This moment remains a case study in risk planning versus reality, and how even the biggest energy players can be humbled by the forces of nature—and bureaucracy.

🧴 PETRO PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT – Dental Floss

Today’s surprise? Dental floss. That squeaky-clean habit wouldn’t exist without oil.

Most floss is made from nylon or Teflon—both petroleum-based polymers. Add in the plastic dispenser, wax coating, and mint flavoring agents, and you’ve got a full-spectrum petrochemical product.

So when your dentist praises your flossing, just know—it’s oilfield science keeping your molars in check.

🔬 DID YOU KNOW? OF THE DAY – Oil’s Boiling Point Isn’t Simple

Crude oil doesn’t boil like water. It has a boiling range from about 200°F to over 1100°F, depending on the hydrocarbons involved.

This is what makes fractional distillation possible—separating kerosene, diesel, gasoline, and asphalt at different temperatures. Think of it as vertical sorting in a refinery column. One substance, many outputs. That’s not chemistry—it’s capitalism in action.

Former mayor of Midland (TX) Patrick Payton being interviewed by The Crude Life Founder Jason Spiess

🏞️ COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT – Midland, Texas

There’s no July 9 without a nod to Midland—the capital of the Permian Basin.

Founded as a railroad stop, Midland became a household name in the 1920s and again in the shale boom of the 2010s. Home to pioneer independents, landmen, and service crews, this is where geology meets grit.

It’s also where hydraulic fracturing matured into an industrial art form. Today, Midland isn’t just producing—it’s teaching the world how to extract responsibly, efficiently, and at scale.

🤝 PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT – Permian Road Safety Coalition

Energy development needs roads, and those roads need safety. Enter the Permian Road Safety Coalition (PRSC)—a PPP formed between operators like Chevron, Pioneer Natural Resources, Schlumberger, and local governments.

Their mission: reduce fatalities, improve infrastructure, and deploy data-driven traffic planning across West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

This isn’t ESG fluff—it’s boots-on-the-ground logistics meeting public needs. In oil country, road safety is just as critical as reservoir pressure.

💬 PROFESSIONAL QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If you’re not a little bit uncomfortable in the oil business, you’re not trying hard enough."
— T. Boone Pickens

There’s no such thing as a sure thing in energy. You chase risk, you manage volatility, and you innovate—or you get left behind.

🏦 THE CRUDE LIFE VAULT

Mayor Patrick Payton was one of the special guest dignitaries who spoke at the DistributionNOW’s grand opening and ribbon cutting celebration and press conference., along with the City of Odessa Mayor Javier Joven. The two mayors joining together created a synergy and symbolism they both would like to see continued into the future.

Mayor Payton joined The Crude Life founder Jason Spiess to have a conversation about the growth and expansion still happening in the Permian, despite global and domestic challenges.

“I was on another radio show this morning and so many people think that the oil industry just pokes holes in the ground and oil just comes out,” Payton said. “They do not realize, and it’s easy to say that over the past three-to-four years this industry has faced an onslaught of really bureaucracy coming after it impacting capital investments.”

Payton believes despite Russia, Ukraine and other political obstacles, the Permian Basin communities are growing together and assisting each other for a common community goal. Payton sees more work ahead, however, in more areas than infrastructure.

One area of change the industry will need to address is the industry’s image and its disconnection with the public.

“For us to reach the potential and hit the numbers to fill the global demands, there is going to have to be a little bit of an attitude change about investment into the oil and gas industry or it’s going to be slower than it should be,” Payton said. “It’s not going to be as high as it could be, as fast as it could be. So we have a tough road ahead of us in the regulatory environment to just take advantage to what we have here. It’s going to be a long road.”

Click here for The Crude Life VAULT interview

🧭 FINAL THOUGHT – LEGACY IS LAYERED

July 9 teaches us that oil’s history is never just a straight line. It’s layered like a shale formation—policy over production, risk under revenue, science threaded with sacrifice.

From Neodesha to the North Sea, energy independence isn’t won in slogans. It’s built with boldness, barrels, and back-office foresight.

This has been your Petro Playback for July 9, reporting from the frontlines of finance, formation pressure, and field-tested freedom Until tomorrow—stay mapped, stay fracked, and always stay fully fueled.

Petro Playback prepared and written by Jason Spiess. Spiess is an multi-award-winning journalist, entrepreneur, producer and content consultant. Spiess, who began working in the media at age 10, has over 35 years of media experience in broadcasting, journalism, reporting and principal ownership in media companies. Spiess is currently the host of several newsmagazine programs that air across a 22 radio stations and podcasts worldwide through podcast platforms, as well as a combined Substack and social media audience of over 500K followers.

Connect with Spiess on LinkedIn

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