A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: Sept. 28 – Oct. 4
September 28, 1945 - Truman claims America's Outer Continental Shelf - President Harry Truman extended U.S. jurisdiction over the natural resources of the outer continental shelf, including oil and natural gas, under the control of the Secretary of the Interior. In...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 21 – 27
September 21, 1901 - First Louisiana Oil Well - Nine months after the headline-making January 1901 "Lucas Gusher" in Texas, another giant oilfield was revealed 90 miles east in Louisiana. W. Scott Heywood -- already successful thanks to wells drilled at Spindletop...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 14 – 20
September 14, 1871 - President Grant visits Pennsylvania Oil Regions - President Ulysses S. Grant and his family arrived at Titusville, Pennsylvania, on a special train. The 18th president thanked residents for the reception and noted it was his first visit to the...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 7 – 13
September 7, 1917 - Oilfield Legacy of Texas Governor Hogg - After drilling 20 "dry holes," the Tyndall-Wyoming Oil Company completed the No. 1 Hogg well 50 miles south of Houston. Within four months, a second well was producing about 600 barrels a day. The...
This Week in Petroleum History: Aug. 31 – Sept. 6
August 31, 1850 - San Francisco Utility manufactures Gas from Coal - The San Francisco Gas Company was incorporated in 1850 to produce and distribute manufactured gas extracted from coal. Irish immigrants Peter and James Donahue and engineer Joseph Eastland erected a...
This Week in Petroleum History, August 24 – 30
August 24, 1892 - "Prophet of Spindletop" founds Oil Exploration Company - Patillo Higgins, who would become known as the "Prophet of Spindletop," founded the Gladys City Oil, Gas & Manufacturing Company and leased 2,700 acres near Beaumont, Texas. Higgins...
This Week in Petroleum History: August 17 – 23
August 17, 1785 – "Bituminous Matter" reported at Oil Creek - Two years after the end of the Revolutionary War, oil was reported floating on a creek in northwestern Pennsylvania. "Oil Creek has taken its name from an oil or bituminous matter being found floating on...
This Week in Petroleum History: August 10 – 16
August 10, 1909 – Hughes patents Two-Cone Drill Bit - “Fishtail” drill bits became obsolete after Howard Hughes Sr. of Houston, Texas, patented the dual-cone roller bit with two rotating cones. By pulverizing hard rock, his bit led to faster and deeper rotary...
This Week in Petroleum History: August 3 – 9
August 3, 1769 - La Brea Asphalt Pits discovered - A West Coast Spanish expedition discovered natural seeps that became known as La Brea (the tar). "We debated whether this substance, which flows melted from underneath the earth, could occasion so many earthquakes,"...
This Week in Petroleum History: July 27 – August 2
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...
History of oil and Gas
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