A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: September 22 – 28
September 22, 1955 - End of Signal Oil "The Whistler” Radio Show - Sponsored since 1942 by the largest independent oil company on the West Coast, the last episode of the radio drama "The Whistler" aired on CBS Radio. Signal Oil Company was established in 1921 by...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 15 – 21
September 15, 1886 - Trenton Field brings Indiana Gas Boom - The Eaton Mining & Gas Company, recently established by George W. Carter and a group of investors, discovered a giant natural gas field near Portland, Indiana, at a depth of 922 feet. They had been...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 8 – 14
September 8, 1891- Patent issued for "Flexible Driving Shafts" - The modern concept of horizontal drilling may have begun with 19th-century patents by John Smalley Campbell of London. After receiving a British patent for his "useful improvements in flexible driving...
This Week in Petroleum History: September 1 – 7
September 1, 1862 - Union taxes Manufactured Gas - A new federal tax of up to 15 cents per thousand cubic feet was placed on manufactured gas to help fund the Civil War. Often processed from coal and stored in large gasometers, "town gas" had become popular for...
This Week in Petroleum History, August 25 – 31
August 26, 1926 – The Texas Company expands - After years of growth thanks to discoveries at Spindletop and Sour Lake, the Texas Corporation was incorporated, acquiring all of the outstanding stock of the Texas Company, which was dissolved the next year. Moving its...
This Week in Petroleum History: August 18 – 24
August 18, 1990 - Oil Pollution Act becomes Law - President George H.W. Bush signed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which was passed by the 101st Congress to strengthen the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to prevent and respond to catastrophic oil...
This Week in Petroleum History: August 11 – 17
August 11, 1891 – Pole Cat Well brings Prosperity to Sistersville - The discovery well of the Sistersville oilfield brought great wealth to a small West Virginian town on the Ohio River north of Parkersburg and Burning Springs (see Confederates attack Oilfield). “The...
This Week in Petroleum History: August 4 – 10
August 4, 1913 - Discovery of Oklahoma's "Poor Man's Field" - The Crystal Oil Company completed its Wirt Franklin No. 1 well 20 miles northwest of Ardmore, Oklahoma. The wildcat well revealed the giant Healdton field, which became known as "the poor man's field"...
This Week in Petroleum History: July 28 – August 3
July 28, 1924 - Oil Scouts form National Group - The National Oil Scouts Association of America, later the International Oil Scouts Association (IOSA), filed its charter in Austin, Texas, bringing new standards to an important oilfield profession. Since the 1860s,...
This Week in Petroleum History: July 21 – 27
July 21, 1935 - "Diamond Glenn" McCarthy strikes Oil - Glenn H. McCarthy struck oil 50 miles east of Houston in 1935, extending the already prolific Anahuac field. The well was the first of many for the Texas independent producer who would discover 11 Texas oilfields...
History of oil and Gas
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