Historical Marker Program

Oklahoma’s First Waterflood

Rogers County
Location: approximately eight miles south of Nowata on US-169
Coordinates: 36.583512, -95.670700
Material: Granite
Sponsor(s): Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Petroleum Council
Topics: Early Statehood, 1907–1941; Petroleum; Water

In May 1931, Bert Collins first used the injection of water into an oil reservoir in the attempt to increase oil recovery, a process that became known as waterflooding. Water is injected under high pressure into oil-bearing formations to force oil to nearby producing wells. An average of ten barrels of water is injected for each barrel of crude oil recovered. Billions of barrels of crude oil have been recovered from world oil reserves by water flooding.