Presented by Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, this 1950s industrial film tells the “story of oil taken from under the sea.” After chronicling the Creole discovery off the coast of Louisiana, narrator Dan Donaldson describes in detail how Kerr-McGee developed and executed a strategy to find and drill into underwater salt domes in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to explaining the design of the offshore platform and the amenities offered crew members, he goes step-by-step through the drilling process.

Pure Oil and Superior Oil opened the Creole field in March 1938, making it the first producing oil field in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Kerr-McGee completed its Kermac 16 well platform south of Morgan City, Louisiana, nine years later. Robert Yarnall Richie, who produced and directed this film, was a freelance industrial photographer and filmmaker who worked with various large corporations in Texas and around the globe.