A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: May 11 – 17
May 11, 1880 - Dresser patents Oil Well Device - Solomon Dresser of Bradford, Pennsylvania, patented a rubber "packer" for sealing downhole pressure in wells. The technology behind the patent (no. 227419) helped confine gas, "which enters the well from the lower rocks...
This Week in Petroleum History: May 4 – 10
May 4, 1869 – Offshore Drilling Platform Design patented - Thomas Rowland of Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, New York, received the first U.S. patent for an offshore drilling rig for his "submarine drilling apparatus." The remarkably advanced platform included a...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 27 – May 3
April 27, 1966 - Ariel Corporation founded - After receiving a degree in mechanical engineering in 1954, former eighth-grade teacher Jim Buchwald founded Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio. "With little money to pay for a facility to house the tools, a room in...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 20 – 26
April 20, 1875 - Improved Well Pumping Technology - Pumping multiple wells with a single steam engine boosted efficiency in early oilfields when Albert Nickerson and Levi Streeter of Venango County, Pennsylvania, patented their "Improvement In Means For Pumping...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 13 – 19
April 13, 1974 - Depth Record set in Oklahoma's Anadarko Basin - After drilling for 504 days and spending about $7 million, the Bertha Rogers No. 1 well reached a total depth of 31,441 feet -- almost six miles -- before being stopped by liquid sulfur. Drilled in...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 6 – 12
April 7, 1902 - Spindletop Boom brings The Texas Company - Joseph "Buckskin Joe" Cullinan and Arnold Schlaet established The Texas Company in Beaumont to transport and refine oil from Spindletop Hill, a giant oilfield discovered in January 1901. The new company...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 30 – April 5
March 30, 1980 - Deadly North Sea Gale - A massive gale in the North Sea capsized a floating accommodation platform for Phillips Petroleum Company workers, killing 123 people. The Alexander L. Kielland, 235 miles east of Dundee, Scotland, housed 208 men who worked on...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 23 – 29
March 23, 1858 - First American Oil Company reorganizes - Investors from New Haven, Connecticut, organized the Seneca Oil Company with $300,000 in capital after purchasing the Titusville leases of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, which had been founded in 1854 by...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 16 – 22
March 16, 1911 - Pegasus Trademark takes Flight - A Vacuum Oil Company subsidiary in Cape Town, South Africa, trademarked a flying horse logo inspired by Pegasus of Greek mythology. Based in Rochester, New York, Vacuum Oil had built a successful lubricants business...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 9 – 15
March 9, 1930 - First Electrically Welded Vessel: Oil Tanker - An oil tanker became the world's first electrically welded commercial vessel when the Texas Company (later Texaco) tanker M/S Carolinian was completed in Charleston, South Carolina. The World War I...
History of oil and Gas
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