After years of growth thanks to discoveries at Spindletop and Sour Lake, the Texas Corporation was incorporated, acquiring all of the outstanding stock of the Texas Company, which was dissolved the next year. (more…)
American oil history began in a valley along a creek in remote northwestern Pennsylvania. Today’s exploration and production industry was born on August 27, 1859, near Titusville when a well specifically drilled for oil found it.
Although crude oil had been found and bottled for medicine as early as 1814 in Ohio and in Kentucky in 1818, these had been drilled seeking brine. Drillers often used an ancient technology, the “spring pole.” Sometimes the salt wells produced small amounts of oil, an unwanted byproduct.
America’s first petroleum exploration company – the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York – incorporated in 1854. It reorganized as the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1858.
The advent of cable-tool drilling introduced the wooden derrick into the changing American landscape. The technology applied the same basic idea of chiseling a hole deeper into the earth.
Using steam power, a variety of heavy bits, and improved mechanical engineering skills, cable-tool drillers became more efficient (learn more Making Hole – Drilling Technology). (more…)
In August 1859, the man who would launch America’s petroleum industry was down to his last pennies — and a letter was on its way to “Colonel” Edwin L. Drake telling him to cease drilling at Titusville, Pennsylvania. Investors in the first oil company wanted him wanted out.
“As far as the company was concerned, the project was finished,” notes historian William Brice, PhD, in his 2009 biography of Drake, a former railroad conductor. “Fortunately that letter was not delivered until after they found oil.” (more…)
Along Oil Creek at Titusville, Pennsylvania, the wooden derrick and engine house of America’s first well specifically drilled for oil erupted in flames on October 7, 1859. The already famous well had been completed on August 27 by Edwin L. Drake, a former railroad conductor hired by the Seneca Oil Company of New Haven, Connecticut. (more…)
