A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: June 1 – 7
June 1, 1860 - First Book about Oil published - Less than 10 months after Edwin L. Drake completed the first commercial U.S. oil well at Titusville, Pennsylvania, Thomas A. Gale published an 80-page pamphlet many regard as the first book about America’s petroleum...
This Week in Petroleum History: May 25 – May 31
May 26, 1891 - Carbon Black Patent leads to Crayola - Edwin Binney of New York City received a patent for his “Apparatus for the Manufacture of Carbon Black." The process allowed the "manufacture lamp-black from oil in an improved and economical manner." It created a...
This Week in Petroleum History: May 18 – 24
May 18, 1912 - Last Coal-Powered Battleship - The USS Texas, America's only surviving dreadnought -- and the last battleship fueled by coal -- was launched from a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. Commissioned in 1914 and converted to fuel oil in 1925, the “Big T”...
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...
History of oil and Gas
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