by Bruce Wells | Aug 3, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History
A West Coast Spanish expedition discovered natural seeps that became known as La Brea (the tar). “We debated whether this substance, which flows melted from underneath the earth, could occasion so many earthquakes,” noted the expedition’s Franciscan friar in his diary. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jul 27, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History
America’s first concrete vessel designed to carry oil, the Socony, left its shipyard at Flushing Bay, New York. Built for the Standard Oil Company of New York, the barge was 98 feet long with a 32-foot beam and carried oil in six center and two wing compartments, “oil-proofed by a special process,” according to the journal Cement and Engineering News. (more…)
