Early Efforts

Prospecting in Conecuh County dates back to the early 1980s, but these efforts targeted the wrong formations. Significant commercial production began in the mid-1990s with the discovery of Cedar Creek Field in 1994. This upper Jurassic Smackover Formation play, about 15 miles southeast of Evergreen, AL near the Sepulga River, proved highly productive.

More Recent

By the mid-2000s, enhanced recovery techniques boosted output, reversing Alabama’s overall production decline. A related extension led to the Brooklyn Field discovery around 2007-2010, south of Little Cedar Creek, adding more wells and production from Smackover Reservoirs.

Together, Little Cedar Creek and Brooklyn account for a major portion of Alabama’s oil output. Cumulative production from Conecuh County fields exceed 40 million barrels historically. The play is an updip extension of the Smackover trend seen in nearby Escambia County. This is Alabama’s most active onshore oil patch in recent decades.