Wellington Oil Company incorporated in Delaware on September 1, 1936, in order to merge the Wellington Oil Company (California) and Santa Clara Oil and Development Company (Texas).
The new company issued 850,000 shares of stock in exchange for the physical assets of the two previous petroleum exploration companies.
John T. O’Neil and C.W. Atkins were named president and vice president respectively; both were experienced and successful independent oil producers. The company’s main office was in San Antonio, Texas.
In 1942 Wellington Oil Company was sold to Seaboard Oil Company with one share of Seaboard exchanged for every four shares of Wellington. Seaboard Oil Company was in turn absorbed by the Texas Company (later Texaco) in 1958.
The Texas Company was most significant company started during the Spindletop oil boom according to one historian.
The company formed soon after the 1901 “Lucas Gusher” when Joseph “Buckskin Joe” Cullinan formed the Petroleum Iron Works, building oil storage tanks in the Beaumont area – where he was introduced to Arnold Schlaet.
Both men would later travel rom their offices in Beaumont to another major oilfield at Sour Lake. Cullinan and Schlaet formed the Texas Company on April 7, 1902, by absorbing the Texas Fuel Company and inheriting its office in Beaumont.
Texas Fuel had organized just one year earlier to purchase Spindletop oil, develop storage and transportation networks, and sell the oil to northern refineries.
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The stories of exploration and production companies joining petroleum booms (and avoiding busts) can be found updated in Is my Old Oil Stock worth Anything? The American Oil & Gas Historical Society preserves U.S. petroleum history. Please support this AOGHS.ORG energy education website. For membership information, contact bawells@aoghs.org. © 2018 Bruce A. Wells.
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