A brief History of Oil

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Population boom and industrialization increase demand for artificial illumination Best fuel for lamps: whale oil Decimation of whale schools and spike in the price of whale oil Scarcity of whale oil for illumination drives search for alternatives 1846: Abraham Gesner invents kerosene, based on from bituminous coal and oil shale 1851: Sam Kier develops kerosene from crude oil 1854: North American Gas Light Company in New York begins selling Gesner's kerosene for lighting 1859: Edwin Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania and launches the first oil boom in the world Main refining centers to make kerosene and other products: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland Technology of drilling for salt (Chinese invented) Boom of oil driven by the need to lubricate machines Capital intensive (private investors) Kerosene used in lamps is a significant fire risk 1861: The Civil War increases demand for Pennsylvania's oil 1861: The first oil tanker leaves Philadelphia 1862: John Rockefeller founds a company to refine oil in Cleveland 1871: The first oil well is drilled in Baku, Caucasus, Russia 1876: First major oil well in California (near Los Angeles) Caucasus oil is difficult to distribute (Caspian Sea + Volga river + railway to reach northern and western destinations) 1878: Ludwig Nobel introduces the first oil tanker in the Caucasus The Nobel family builds an integrated industry of wells, pipelines, refineries, tankers, depots, railroads 1879: Edison's light bulb changes the dynamics of lighting Oil is sold to make kerosene, heat and power 1882: John Rockefeller's Standard Oil pioneers the "trust" to control multiple companies (later the "holding company"), moving its headquarters to New York 1883: The Netherlands begins to drill for oil in Sumatra, Indonesia 1886: Alphonse Rothschild, a French Jew, forms the Black Sea Petroleum Company 1890: Rockefeller has a virtual monopoly on the oil industry Horizontal integration: former competitors are brought under a single corporate umbrella Standard Oil becomes the model for "trusts" (monopolies) in other industries 1890: The Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890: The Royal Dutch Company is founded in the Netherlands for oil exploration 1891: USA oil accounts for 78% of illuminating oil exports vs 29% of Russia 1892: Edward Doheny strikes oil in Los Angeles 1892: Marcus Samuel, a British Jew, introduces an oil tanker that can sail through the Suez canal to Bangkok 1892: Edward Doheny strikes oil in Los Angeles 1900: California is the main producer of oil in the world 1897: Marcus Samuel founds the Shell Transport and Trading Company 1900: 2,300 automobiles are registered in the USA, of which 1,170 are steam-powered, 800 are electric, and 400 are gasoline-powered 1901: oil is discovered near Beaumont (Spindletop oil field, Texas) and in Oklahoma Pennsylvania oil is top quality, Texas oil is of poor quality (not suitable for kerosene) Texas oil marketed to railways and steamships (locomotion, not lighting) 1901: Andrew Mellon founds the Gulf Oil Company in Texas 1901: Joseph Cullinan founds the Texas Fuel Company (later Texaco) 1902: a female journalist, Ida-Minerva Tarbell, exposes Standard Oil's dubious practices 1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first airplane, powered by gasoline 1904: The Trans-Siberian Railroad is inaugurated, using Shell's oil Since Russia has to import coal from Britain, the Russian government encourages a switch from coal to oil 1905: A huge oil field is discovered in Oklahoma (oil of Pennsylvania quality in Texas quantities) 1907: Royal Dutch and Shell merge, creating a company that controls more than 50% of shipments to Russia and Far East 1907: The first gasoline station is inaugurated in the USA 1908: Ford introduces the Model T, the first mass vehicle 1908: A British company, Anglo-Persian, discovers oil in Iran, the first oil well in the Middle East 1909: The USA forces the dissolution of Standard Oil, which creates Chevron, Mobil, Amoco, Socal, etc 1910: California produces 22% of the world's oil (more than any country in the world except the USA) 1900: The USA investor Edward Doheny strikes oil in Mexico 1911: Sales of gasoline exceed sales of kerosene 1911: Churchill switches Britain's navy from coal to oil to counter the German build-up 1911: The government dissolves Rockefeller's Standard Oil 1912: Armenian-born Calouste Gulbenkian and Anglo-Persian form the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) to dig oil in Iraq 1912: Royal Dutch Shell acquires Rothschild's Russian oil organization 1914: The British government purchases part of Anglo-Persian, only the second time the British government has purchased a private company 1917: the "Roaring Ranger" oil field (Eastland County, Texas) Texas is a state of boom towns 1917: The USA accounts for 67% of the world's oil output 1918: World War I is won by oil and the internal combustion engine 1918: Oil production in Iran increases 1,000% since 1912 1920: British investor Weetman Pearson discovers the largest oil field in the world in Mexico 1921: Royal Dutch Shell discovers oil in Venezuela 1926: A second oil rush in Oklahoma 1927: Anglo-Persian and Royal Dutch Shell discover oil in Iraq 1928: Texas passes California in oil production 1929: 78% of the world's cars are in the USA 1929: Venezuela is the second world producer of oil after the USA, and Mexico is third 1929: The Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) is renamed Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) 1930: A second oil rush in Texas 1931: The price of oil plunges to $0.15/barrel 1932: Socal discovers oil in Bahrein 1936: Control of world reserves of oil: Britain 524 million tons, USA 93 million 1938: Mexico nationalizes USA and British oil companies (Petroleos Mexicanos) 1938: The Kuwait Oil Company (formed by Anglo-Persian and Gulf) discovers oil in Kuwait 1938: Socal discovers oil in Saudi Arabia Hitler's oil source: Romania + synthetic oil Japan's oil source: USA Russia's oil source: Caucasus Britain's oil source: USA and colonies Jul 1941: USA oil embargo on Japan Japan plan to invade oil-rich countries in Southeast Asia Only one impediment: Pearl Harbor fleet (Dec 7, 1941) Dec 1941: Japan-USA war: the first oil war 1944: Britain controls 2.2 billion tons of oil reserves, the USA controls 1.8 billion 1944: The USA discovers that Arabia, Iraq and Iran hold colossal oil reserves 1944: Socal and Texaco form Aramco 1950s: The Seven Sisters (BP, Esso, Gulf Oil, Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, SoCal and Texaco) control 85% of oil reserves 1950s: The age of Detroit's "gas guzzlers" Worldwide economic boom fueled by cheap oil Total world energy consumption more than triples between 1949 and 1972 Consumption of oil increases more than 500% Motor vehicles increase from 64 million in 1949 to 281 million in 1972 (119 million in the USA alone) 1973: First oil crisis 1970s: Pressure in oil-producing countries to nationalize oil resources (Saudi Aramco, Brazil's Petrobras, Malaysia's Petronas, Russia's Gazprom, China's Sinopec, Venezuela's PDVSA) 1980s: Major oil companies outsource drilling and production to specialists (Halliburton, Schlumberger) 1985: The collapse of oil prices causes a budget deficit in the Soviet Union 1990s: Price of oil dips leading to industry consolidation 1998: "Fracking" makes natural gas cheaper than oil 2000s: Global domand for oil increases and prices skyrocket 2000s: New technologies allow oil firms to exploit new resources 2000s: Oil demand falling in the West and later in developing countries because of more fuel-efficient vehicles and conservation programs 2010s: National oil companies control over 90% of oil reserves, while the oil multinationals mainly discover, produce, refine and market the product 2013: Exxon Mobil is the second company in the world for market capitalization (after Apple), Chevron employs 62 thousand people, Dutch Shell, Total, British Petroleum See also A Timeline of Cars.