A Chronology of U.S. Oil & Gas
This Week in Petroleum History
This Week in Petroleum History: April 29 – May 5
April 29, 2004 - Last Oldsmobile rolls off Assembly Line - The last Oldsmobile ever built (Alero GLS model) left the company's production line in Lansing, Michigan. Founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897 as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company," Olds sold America's first...
This Week in Petroleum History: April 22 – 28
April 22, 1920 - Natural Gas Well leads Arkansas Discoveries - Although natural gas was first discovered in 1887 at Fort Smith, the first commercial production began in southern Arkansas with a well completed southeast of El Dorado. Drilled to a depth of almost 2,250...
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...
History of oil and Gas
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