A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History, February 2 – 8
February 2, 1923 - First Anti-Knock Gas goes on Sale - The world’s first anti-knock gasoline containing a tetra-ethyl lead compound went on sale at the Refiners Oil Company service station in Dayton, Ohio. Discovered two years earlier by General Motors scientists,...
This Week in Petroleum History, January 26 – February 1
January 26, 1931 - Third Well reveals Size of East Texas Oilfield - As East Texas farmers struggled to survive the Great Depression, an oil discovery confirmed the existence of a massive oilfield. W.A. “Monty” Moncrief of Fort Worth completed the Lathrop No. 1 well,...
This Week in Petroleum History, January 19 – 25
January 19, 1922 - USGS predicts Oil Shortage, Again - The U.S. Geological Survey predicted America's oil supplies would run out in 20 years. It was not the first nor last false alarm. Warnings of shortages were made for most of the 20th century, according to A Case...
This Week in Petroleum History, January 12 – 18
January 12, 1904 - Henry Ford sets Speed Record - Seeking to prove his cars were built better than most, Henry Ford set a world land speed record on a frozen Michigan lake. At the time, the Ford Motor Company was struggling to get financial backing for its first car,...
This Week in Petroleum History, January 5 – 11
January 7, 1864 - Oilfield Discovery at Pithole Creek - The once-famous Pithole Creek oilfield discovered in Pennsylvania by a well drilled by the United States Petroleum Company -- reportedly located by using a witch-hazel dowser. The discovery well, which initially...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 29 – January 4
December 30, 1854 - First American Oil Company incorporates - George Bissell and six investors incorporated the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York. Convinced by natural seeps that oil could be produced in northwestern Pennsylvania, Bissell formed this first...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 22 – 28
December 22, 1875 – Grant paves Pennsylvania Avenue with Asphalt - President Ulysses S. Grant convinced Congress to repave Pennsylvania Avenue's badly deteriorated plank boards with asphalt. Grant delivered to Congress a "Report of the Commissioners Created by the Act...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 15 – 21
December 17, 1884 - Fighting Oilfield Fires with Cannons - “Oil fires, like battles, are fought by artillery,” proclaimed an article in The Tech, a student newspaper of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “A Thunder-Storm in the Oil Country” featured the...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 8 – 14
December 8, 1931 - Advanced Blowout Preventer patented - Improving upon the success of the Cameron Iron Works mechanically operated ram-type blowout preventer, James Abercrombie patented a "Fluid Pressure Operated Blow Out Preventer" designed to operate...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 1 – 7
December 1, 1865 - Lady Macbeth arrives in Famed Boom Town - Shakespearean tragedienne Miss Eloise Bridges starred as Lady Macbeth in Pithole, Pennsylvania -- America's first famously notorious oil boom town. A January 1865 oilfield discovery had launched the...
History of oil and Gas
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