A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: January 1 – 7
January 1, 1973 - Esso becomes Exxon - After one year of test marketing the new name, Standard Oil of New Jersey became Exxon, officially replacing U.S. Esso brands and subsidiary Humble Oil and Refining's Enco brands. The nationwide rebranding applied to 28,600 Esso...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 25 to December 31
December 26, 1905 - Nellie Bly's Ironclad 55-Gallon Metal Barrel - Inventor Henry Wehrhahn of Brooklyn, New York, received two patents that would lead to the modern 55-gallon steel drum. He assigned both to his employer, the famous journalist Nellie Bly, who was...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 18 to December 24
December 18, 1929 - California Oil Boom in Venice - The Ohio Oil Company completed a wildcat well in Venice, California, on the Marina Peninsula, east of the Grand Canal, two blocks from the ocean. The oilfield discovery well produced 3,000 barrels of oil a day from...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 11 to December 17
December 11, 1950 - Federal Offshore grows beyond Cannon Shot - After decades of controversy and a 1947 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the federal government's “paramount rights” offshore were established beyond a three nautical mile limit, an 18th century precedent...
This Week in Petroleum History, December 4 to December 10
December 4, 1928 - First Oil Discovery using Reflection Seismography - Following tests in the early 1920s, reflection seismic technology was first used to find oil in Oklahoma when Amerada Petroleum Corporation drilled a well into the Viola limestone formation near...
This Week in Petroleum History, November 27 to December 3
November 27, 1940 - Art Museum features Painting of Mobilgas Station - With petroleum company service stations already part of America's popular culture, Edward Hopper's painting "Gas" was first exhibited by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Art...
This Week in Petroleum History, November 20 to November 26
November 20, 1866 - Improved Well Torpedo patented - Col. Edward A.L. Roberts of New York City patented improvements to his Roberts Torpedo, an oilfield technology for increasing production by fracturing oil-bearing formations. "Our attention has been called to a...
This Week in Petroleum History, November 13 to November 19
November 14, 1947 - First Oil Well drilled Out of Sight of Land - The modern offshore oil and natural gas industry began in the Gulf of Mexico with the first oil well successfully completed out of sight of land. Brown & Root Company built the experimental...
This Week in Petroleum History, November 6 to November 12
November 6, 1860 - First Multi-Still Oil Refinery started in Pennsylvania - As the Civil War neared, construction began on America's first multiple-still oil refinery. William Barnsdall, who drilled a commercial oil well soon after the first U.S. oil well of August...
This Week in Petroleum History, October 30-November 5
October 30, 1894 - "Golden Rule" Jones invents a Better Sucker Rod - Samuel M. Jones patented a sucker rod design for his Acme Sucker Rod Company, which he had founded in 1892 in Toledo, Ohio. With his “Coupling for Pipes or Rods,” Jones applied his oilfield...
History of oil and Gas
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