End of Oil Exchanges

Standard Oil curbs the excitement of unruly speculators trading oil and pipeline certificates.

 

In a sign of the growing power of John D. Rockefeller at the end of the 19th century, Standard Oil Company brought a decisive end to Pennsylvania’s highly speculative  — and often confusing — trading markets at oil exchanges.

On January 23, 1895, the Standard Oil Company’s purchasing agency in Oil City, Pennsylvania, notified independent oil producers it would only buy their oil at a price “as high as the markets of the world will justify” and not necessarily “the price bid on the oil exchange for certificate oil.” The action would bring an end to the “paper oil” markets of brokers and buyers.

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Cherry Grove Mystery Well

Pennsylvania drillers kept oil production from the 1882 Warren County well a closely guarded secret.

 

Anyone interested in Pennsylvania petroleum history should not miss the celebration at Cherry Grove every June. This small community of oil patch historians annually celebrates its 19th-century oil discovery with the Cherry Grove Old Home and Community Day.

Oil prices plunged in 1882 when oil production from the Pennsylvania “mystery well” was finally revealed. Daily production from the oilfield discovery well — drilled on lot 646 in the wilderness of Warren County — had been a closely guarded secret. (more…)

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