Oil was discovered at Gabian, Department of Herault, on September 11, 1924, and a commercial well was completed on November 6 at a depth of 350 feet. It is owned by the government and is in the center of a 4,000-hectare (15 square miles) concession in charge of the Direction des Petroles. This is the first oil produced in France elsewhere than Pechelbronn, in Alsace. Gabian is 30 miles west of Montpellier and 19 miles north of the Mediterranean Sea.
An oil seepage in a spring mile south of Gabian was described in 1717. Later galleries were dug,...
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