A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: April 15 – 21
April 15, 1857 - First Natural Gas Company incorporated - Two years before the first U.S. oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the Fredonia Gas Light and Water Works Company incorporated in Fredonia, New York, where a well drilled by local machinist and gunsmith...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 8 – 14
April 9, 1914 - Ohio Cities Gas Company founded - Beman Dawes and Fletcher Heath organized the Ohio Cities Gas Company in Columbus, Ohio, before building an oil refinery in West Virginia. Ohio Cities Gas acquired Pennsylvania-based Pure Oil Company in 1917 and...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 1 – 7
April 1, 1911 - First Gusher of "Pump Jack Capital of Texas" - South of the Red River border with Oklahoma, near Electra, Texas, the Clayco Oil & Pipe Line Company's Clayco No. 1 well launched an oil boom that would last decades. "As news of the gusher spread...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 25 – 31
March 26, 1930 - Oklahoma City's “Wild Mary Sudik” makes Headlines - What would become one of Oklahoma's most famous wells struck a high-pressure formation about 6,500 feet beneath Oklahoma City and oil erupted skyward. The Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company's...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 18 – 24
March 18, 1937 - New London School Explosion Tragedy - With just minutes left in the school day, a natural gas explosion destroyed the New London High School in Rusk County, Texas. Odorless gas (a residual natural gas called casing-head gas) had leaked into the...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 11 – 17
March 11, 1829 - Kentucky Salt Well Driller discovers Oil - Boring for brine with a simple spring-pole method on a farm near Burkesville, Kentucky, Martin Beatty found oil at a depth of 171 feet. Disappointed, he searched elsewhere. Beatty drilled brine wells to meet...
This Week in Petroleum History: March 4 – 10
March 4, 1918 - West Virginia Well sets World Depth Record - Hope Natural Gas Company completed an oil well at a depth of 7,386 feet on the Martha Goff farm in Harrison County, West Virginia. The well, drilled northeast of Clarksburg using cable-tools, was the world's...
This Week in Petroleum History: February 26-March 3
February 27, 1925 - Congress passes Osage Indians Act - As a result of murders and a "reign of terror" in the Osage Nation, the U.S. Congress passed the Osage Indians Act of 1925, prohibiting non-Osages from inheriting headrights of tribal members possessing more...
This Week in Petroleum History: February 19 – 25
February 19, 1863 - First Pipeline Attempt to link Oilfield to Refinery - With teamsters dominating oil transportation in Pennsylvania, independent producer James L. Hutchings designed and constructed a pipeline to transport oil from a well on a farm at Oil Creek to a...
This Week in Petroleum History: February 12 – 18
February 12, 1954 - First Nevada Oil Well - After hundreds of dry holes (the first drilled near Reno in 1907), Nevada became a petroleum-producing state. Shell Oil Company's second test of its Eagle Springs No. 1 well in Nye County produced commercial amounts of oil....
History of oil and Gas
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