Clifford C. Briggs
Clifford was born
September 24, 1922. He has been married to Kathleen for 56
years and has two children. He graduated from Albion Illinois
High School in 1941.
Clifford moved to Mt. Vernon Indiana in 1952 to take his first job in the oil industry as a pumper for Advance Drilling Company. In partnership with Advance Drilling Company operated a cable tool rig in the Sistersville, West Virginia area in 1956. Additionally, while in the Sistersville area he pushed tools on a rotary rig for Advance Drilling Company.
Clifford purchased his first oil producing lease in 1956, and continued to purchase oil producing leases which he operated and pumped. He also operated and pumped wells for other companies from 1956 through the late 1960. At one time Clifford pumped 50 producing wells and traveled 125 miles daily. Among the companies he pumped for were; Advance Drilling Company, Farm Bureau Oil Company, and Tamarack, etc.
In 1968 Clifford went in partnership with Lloyd Quinn where they operated under the name of Ecus Corporation out of Mt. Vernon, Indiana. His responsibilities in Ecus Corporation consisted of completion engineering and production supervision. Ecus Corporation purchased and operated many leases in Indiana and Kentucky. The first significant discovery was the Berry School Field in Daviess County Kentucky 1973, and the field produced over 500,000 barrels of oil.
In 1977 Ecus Corporation made its first significant find in Indiana when the Vollmer Field was discovered. This field produced from the McClosky Oolitic formation that produced over 715,000 barrels of oil to date but was not successful under secondary/water flood technique so a polymer flood was designed and implemented, it was highly successful.
Ecus Corporation was very active in exploratory drilling and was innovative in developing completion techniques for the Salem/Warsaw formations under Clifford’s supervision. During the mid 1970’s and early 1980’s Ecus drilled more than 70 wells per year and completed 70 oil wells in one year, therefore, many smaller fields were discovered and developed during Clifford’s tenure with Ecus. In 1993 Clifford sold his interest in Ecus Corporation and retired to operating several wells that he owns in Posey County, Indiana.