Category: oil and gas

(Image credit: American Oil and Gas Historical Society)

This is a well known image most likely to every American who is at least 40 years old.  For decades, it was the trademark of Mobil gas stations and other Mobilgas products and facilities.  Prior to 1911, the Standard Oil Company was the largest oil company in the world.  It was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1863 as the Standard Oil Trust and within a few years it had become a company that dominated the oil industry in the United States.  The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was enacted to help prevent monopolies from controlling too much of the U. S. economy.  The Standard Oil Company was declared a monopoly under the Act and was ordered by the U. S. Supreme Court to break itself up into seven different “state” companies in 1911, similar to the action that was required of AT&T several decades later.

Continue reading Pegasus

The story begins with a well drilled into a salt dome in the Beaumont area in far southeast Texas.  On January 10, 1901 a Captain Lucas was in a local store when the shopkeeper received a frantic call from Lucas’ wife telling him that the well the Captain was drilling a few miles away had “spouted” and blown out.  The well site known as the Lucas No. 1 was located in a place called Spindletop.  Lucas quickly drove his horse and buggy to the wellsite where he could see a steady stream of black liquid spewing out of the hole, settling on the derrick and other equipment.

Continue reading Birth of the Wichita Oil Field