A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History, October 28 – November 3
October 28, 1868 - Newspaper praises Explosive Technology - The Titusville Morning Herald praised the results of an explosive oilfield production technology -- Civil War veteran Colonel E.A.L. Roberts' patented nitroglycerin torpedo. "It would be superfluous, at this...
This Week in Petroleum History, October 21 – 27
October 21, 1921 - First Natural Gas Well in New Mexico - The New Mexico natural gas industry began when the newly established Aztec Oil Syndicate's State No. 1 well found a gas field about 15 miles northeast of Farmington in San Juan County. The drilling crew used a...
This Week in Petroleum History, October 14 – 20
October 14, 1929 - Van Oilfield Discovery East of Dallas - Pure Oil Company completed its Jarman No. 1 well in Van Zandt County and launched a drilling boom 60 miles east of Dallas. During its first hour, the oilfield discovery well produced 147 barrels of oil from...
This Week in Petroleum History: October 7 – 13
October 7, 1859 - First U.S. Oil Well catches Fire - The wooden derrick and engine house of America's first oil well erupted in flames along Oil Creek at Titusville, Pennsylvania. The well had been completed the previous August by Edwin L. Drake for George Bissell and...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 30 – October 6
September 30, 2006 - Roughnecks Statue dedicated at Signal Hill - A bronze "Tribute to the Roughnecks" statue was dedicated near the Alamitos No. 1 well, which in 1921 revealed California's prolific Long Beach oilfield 20 miles south of Los Angeles. The statue by...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 23 – 29
September 23, 1918 - Wood River Refinery goes Online - The Roxana Petroleum Company Wood River (Illinois) facility began refining crude oil -- processing more than two million barrels of oil from Oklahoma oilfields in its first year of operation. Roxana Petroleum was...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 16 – 22
September 16, 1908 - Carriage Maker incorporates General Motors - William Crapo "Billy" Durant, co-owner of America's largest manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages, founded General Motors Holding Company in Flint, Michigan. The Durant-Dort Carriage Company, which had...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 9 – 15
September 10, 1969 - Second Nuclear Fracturing Test - A 40-kiloton nuclear device was detonated about eight miles southeast of present-day Parachute, in Garfield County, Colorado. Project Rulison was the second of three natural-gas-reservoir stimulation tests that...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 2 – 8
September 2, 1910 - Cities Service Company incorporates - Henry Doherty organized the Cities Services Company as a public utility holding company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Doherty bought producing properties in Kansas and Oklahoma as he acquired distributing...
This Week in Petroleum History, August 26 to September 1
August 26, 1926 – The Texas Company expands - After years of growth thanks to discoveries at Spindletop and Sour Lake, the Texas Corporation incorporated in Delaware, acquiring the outstanding stock of the Texas Company (Texas), which was dissolved by the next year....
History of oil and Gas
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