by Bruce Wells | Jul 29, 2026 | Energy Education Resources
California oil seeps created asphalt pools — not tar — that trapped Ice Age animals.
The sticky black pools attracting tourists between Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles are natural asphalt, also known as bitumen. Although the repetitive tar pits’ name has stuck, the seeps are part of America’s oil history.
The La Brea site — discovered by a Spanish expedition on August 3, 1769 — originated from naturally produced California oil seeps found onshore and offshore. (more…)
by Bruce Wells | Jul 27, 2026 | This Week in Petroleum History
July 27, 1918 – Standard Oil of New York launches Concrete Tanker
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…)
