Qualla: Zumaque I

Zumaque I: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On July 31, 1914, a crew of farmhands who knew nothing about petroleum declared victory over a hole in the ground 135 meters deep. They had no engineering degrees, no drinking water, and no medical support. What they had was crude oil flowing at 264 barrels per day from beneath a jungle-covered hill called La Estrella, near the town of Mene Grande in western Venezuela. That well, designated MG-1 by the Caribbean Petroleum Company and later nicknamed "El Zumaque" after an indigenous shrub that grew in the clearing, became the birthplace of Venezuelan oil production. More than a century later, Zumaque I still trickles out 18 to 20 barrels a day, making it the oldest active oil well in the country.

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Zumaque I: From Hacienda to Black Gold

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Geologists had known for years that something valuable lay beneath the Zulia lowlands east of Lake Maracaibo. Oil seeps in the region attracted attention as early as 1909, when John Allen Tregelles, representing the English firm The Venezuela Development Company, secured an immen...

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Zumaque I: Drilling with Farmer's Tools

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Construction began in April 1914 on an anticline of La Estrella hill, named for the star-shaped drilling machine hauled into position. The jungle had to be cleared by hand. The workers used a site-built timber derrick and a hammer drill, primitive equipment even by the standards ...

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Zumaque I: Refineries, Strikes, and Sovereignty

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Success at Zumaque I forced rapid industrialization. In 1917, the Caribbean Petroleum Company built the San Lorenzo Refinery in the nearby lake town of San Timoteo, with a capacity of 8,000 barrels per day, the first refinery in Venezuela and among the most modern of its era. But...

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Zumaque I: The Nationalizations

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On January 1, 1976, President Carlos Andres Perez chose the Zumaque I wellsite as the stage for nationalizing Venezuela's oil industry. The assets of Royal Dutch Shell and other foreign operators became the property of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) and its subsidiary Marav...

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Zumaque I: A Monument That Still Pumps

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A plaque at the site commemorates both the 1914 discovery and the 1976 nationalization. As of 2014, the centennial of its drilling, Zumaque I still produced between 18 and 20 barrels daily, a trickle by modern standards but a powerful symbol of continuity. The well sits a few kil...

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