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40 Years at Prudhoe Bay: Mangus laid groundwork for oil discovery Retired geologist was among the few who surveyed and mapped the Arctic coastal plain from Barrow to the Northwest Territories Rose Ragsdale For Petroleum News
Marvin Mangus first came to Alaska’s North Slope in 1947 with the U.S. Geological Survey and spent nine field seasons mapping the geology of the area, from the Brooks Range to the Arctic Ocean and from the U.S. border with Canada in the east to Cape Simpson near Barrow in the west.
Mangus, who grew up in Western Pennsylvania, earned bachelor’s and masters degrees in geology from Pennsylvania State University, before pursuing a career in petroleum geology.
“I’d always wanted to do field work in Alaska, so I put in my resume with the Survey in 1946 and was hired in 1947 to put in the Navy oil unit,” Mangus recalled in a recent interview.
During this period, longtime USGS geologist George Gryc led one of the first field parties for the Survey on the North Slope, then known as the Arctic coastal plain, Mangus said.
“We knew the area had one of the largest and thickest suites of Cretaceous rocks, comparable to the Rocky Mountains foothills,” Mangus said.
Mangus said the Navy had built and maintained a small camp with a full-time cook in the reserve. Ten to 50 people did field surveying each season, depending on annual congressional appropriation.
“We went into the Brooks Range because when we got out to Umiat, we started losing the outcrops. They had to use seismic north of there,” he said.
Disappointed by the lack of big oil discoveries, the federal government backed away for Arctic exploration in 1953, shutting down the USGS exploration program when the agency ran out of funding and Congress wouldn’t appropriate any more funds for the work.
A new era of exploration In 1958, the industry took over where the government left off.
Before then, companies were not allowed to prospect north of the Brooks Range for hydrocarbons and minerals because it was set aside for the government in case of emergency, by Public Order No. 41.
The federal government rescinded that order in 1957 and 1958, and private industry moved in and started prospecting for oil.
By then, Mangus had left the USGS and gone to work Philadelphia, Pa.-based Atlantic Refining Co. in Central America. He spent two years doing field work in Guatemala, before Atlantic transferred him to Calgary, Alberta in 1960.
Mangus then spent two field seasons mapping the Richardson and Western Mackenzie and Franklin mountains in northern Canada.
“I did surface work in the northern Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories and found some big structures some 180 miles east of Umiat in what today is (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge),” he recalled.
“We mapped all the way from Banks Island, Northwest Territories to Cape Lisburne and Point Lay. That’s 1,200 miles. We would move camp by boat. We usually had two geologists, two field assistants and a cook. I wore out my knees scrambling around over the rocks,” Mangus recalled.
“It all tied in very nicely. The area had the same outcroppings, and same age rocks as the Richardson Mountains and Mackenzie Mountains. At Norman Wells, Nwt., we found unconformities and structural traps. Now they are doing quite well with gas fields up at Inuvik, Nwt.,” he said.
“If you thought the North Slope was sparsely populated, you should have gone to the Northwest Territories back then,” he added.
In 1962, Mangus returned to Alaska as regional senior surface geologist in charge of the Arctic Slope of Alaska. His mission: To conduct Atlantic Refining’s geological field program.
“We started mapping the North Slope from Umiat to the Canning River, which was the western boundary of ANWR. We did the geologic mapping in there. We compiled the maps, and then we came up with some recommendations for drilling wells, but we had to wait for the geologic seismic maps to come out because there were no outcroppings in the northern part of the coastal plain. We tied those maps together, which took a couple more years. Then in 1964, we worked the Brooks Range from Umiat to Feniak Lake. “Everything was confidential. We didn’t trade maps unless we were partners with a company. Even then there was some secrecy,” he said.
Helicopters changed the game During the 1950s and 1960s, helicopters transformed geological field work in the Arctic, providing a mode of transportation that made surveying and mapping a far more efficient process.
“In the Navy oil days, we walked and we moved camp by boat. There is no comparison to doing field work by boat,” Mangus said. “Helicopters are a much better way of getting around to look at the rocks in the field as long as you take notice. To really look at rocks, it is better to walk for a few years.”
That’s especially true for young geologists fresh out of school, he said. “Don’t come right out of college and go only to the helicopters because you over fly and miss a lot of pertinent ideas,” he warned.
Mangus said everyone whom I worked with both at the USGS and in the oil industry were good geologists and hard workers. But a lot of them didn’t come back after working one summer on the North Slope because of the harsh living conditions, especially for the USGS, he said.
“We never lost anyone in that rough country because you had to be very careful,” Mangus recalled.
Though he did not use a helicopter to do field work until 1960, Mangus said he definitely recommends their use because of all the walking he had to do in Alaska and in Central America.
“You can’t land helicopters in a lot of places. But another good thing about helicopters if you saw something late in the season, and you remember it four or five weeks later, you can go back and look, but if you’re walking, or floating in boats, you sure as hell can’t go back,” he said. “You also can re-fly areas you’ve already worked. You can go back and check. You can’t do that when you’re walking.”
Still, helicopters came with their own set of difficulties because landing areas on the North Slope are very nebulous, said Mangus, who was involved in five helicopter crashes in the latter part of his career.
The geologist’s wife, Jane Mangus, recalled a night in the 1960s when her husband’s colleague, John Sweet, came to her house and wanted to pray because Marvin’s helicopter had gone down.
“Nobody was in it, and that made me feel like he might be alright,” she said. “Marvin built an enormous bonfire and a commercial airplane saw it. So he was rescued.”
Industry brought resources to field work Working for industry offered other advantages, too.
“We had no supplies. With industry, we had a lot of things we didn’t have with the USGS such as communications. We also had better tents, and we could carry a lot more field gear. If you go in and do a good job of reconnaissance, then you can go in and take a better look next year. With the helicopters, you can work the inner stream areas, while you were limited to within 15 miles of the river with the boats. Walking more than 30 miles in that country was something else. Walking was just tougher than hell,” Mangus recalled.
However, the North Slope’s barren landscape allows one to see long distances. Thus, outcrops were better exposed, and not hidden by vegetation, he said.
When Atlantic Refining and Richfield Oil Co. merged in early 1966, Mangus became senior field geologist for Atlantic Richfield Co. He shared an office with Humble Oil Co.’s geologist Gil Mull since Richfield had partnered with ExxonMobil’s predecessor company.
The newly combined Arco had to take over the drilling operation and carry out all of Richfield’s commitments. So Arco drilled the Susie No. 1 well.
“We went down about 14,000 feet and it was dry,” Mangus recalled. “By that time, government regulations came along and we had too much acreage and had to release some of it.”
A convergence of ideas ensued involving joint fieldwork and mapping parties with Humble Oil, he said.
Up until that time, industry had spent $250 million and come up with nothing but dry holes, Mangus said.
“We consolidated maps between the three organizations and came up with the big structure. We figured one more hole after Susie. Prudhoe Bay State #1 would probably have been the last hole if we hadn’t found oil. We figured this would be a good place because it was a sub-surface clay. We took it to management, and they said go ahead.
We were all in favor of drilling it – Charlie Selman, head of geophysics; Rudy Berlin, Gil Mull, John Sweet and Harry Jamison,” he recalled. “When we put it all together, from geophysics to geology, Prudhoe Bay State No. 1 was our discovery. We discovered it using geologic field work and seismic work.
“X” marks the spot In August 1966, Mangus was chosen to travel to the North Slope and actually mark the surface location where Prudhoe Bay State Well No. 1 would be drilled.
“We put a 10-foot iron rod, painted international red, where the well was to be drilled. It was a joint effort to pick that location; I was just asked to mark it. I was the senior man, and they asked me.
“When we finally hit oil there, well, we were real excited because we knew it was really big,” Mangus said. “We had to stop drilling in the spring of 1967 and that fall we went back. In December, we hit the oil but they did not call the official discovery date until February or March of 1968. You didn’t want everyone to know. We didn’t finish Prudhoe No. 1 until about June 1968”.
The confirmation well also was drilled in June 1968.
“We used a different drill rig at Sag River State than at Prudhoe Bay. We used a Nabors Drilling rig for Sag River,” Mangus recalled. “When we hit that, we couldn’t believe it. It was just loaded with oil. That’s the one that was estimated at (9 billion barrels). Sag River had no gas cap. It was all oil, and oil was worth a lot more than gas.
“We were just elated. We couldn’t believe it. When you find the biggest oil reserve in North America, you are happy. Everyone gets into the act. Finding that was like finding a $100 gold piece in your Christmas stocking instead of a lump of coal,” he added.
Geologist captures beauty of the Arctic Mangus, an accomplished and celebrated artist, captured many of images of the dramatic Arctic landscape on canvas during his years of field work in the far North.
One memorable painting depicts the Loffland Bros. rig that drilled the Prudhoe Bay State No. 1 discovery well. Mangus painted it while sitting on the well as the well site geologist for Arco.
“Every night I’d go out and look at the samples and gawk at the Northern Lights and come back inside and slap on a few more brush strokes,” he recalled.
After the Prudhoe Bay field was discovered, Mangus stayed on with Arco until 1969 when he formed a consulting firm with two geologists from Phillips Petroleum, he said.
“After I left Arco, we tried to get a couple of the oil companies to pursue drilling at Alpine but had no luck,” he said.
Mangus said his last mapping job for Arco was a detailed study of the Sadlerochit Formation.
In addition to Prudhoe Bay, Mangus played a significant role in Pan American’s Kavik gas discovery and mapped the Alaska Peninsula from Port Moller to Kamishak Bay, the Talkeetna Mountains and the Kandik and Copper River Basins.
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