The Pioneering Days: George H. Bissell and the Birth of the American Oil Industry

The American petroleum industry, a colossal force shaping global economies and geopolitical landscapes, finds its roots in the innovative mind of George H. Bissell. A former professor of Latin and Greek at Dartmouth, Bissell's pursuit of a practical means to extract 'rock oil' from the earth marked the initiation of a transformative era. In a daring move just five days prior to the Civil War, Bissell enlisted the services of Edwin L. Drake, assigning him the task of drilling a well using equipment initially designed for salt production.

In August 1859, Drake struck upon a valuable resource, ushering in the advent of America's inaugural oil well. The subsequent identification of two more wells within weeks affirmed the abundance of petroleum, catalyzing the onset of the oil boom in western Pennsylvania. This pivotal juncture laid the foundation for the development of an industry that would go on to fuel the engines of 20th-century enterprise, transportation, and military endeavors.

John D. Rockefeller, a central figure in the American oil narrative, entered the scene in 1863, initially engaging in oil refining. However, it took seven more years for him to establish the iconic Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller's astute acquisitions of refiners, pipelines, and marketing firms fueled the company's expansion. By 1875, major refiners had aligned themselves with the Standard Oil group, cementing Rockefeller's dominion.

By 1882, Rockefeller's influence extended over an impressive 90 percent of the nation's refineries, representing an unparalleled consolidation of power in the industry. This dominance paved the way for the meteoric ascent of the Standard Oil Company, shaping the American oil landscape for decades to follow.

In 1913, William Burton of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana introduced an innovative thermal cracking process through patenting. This breakthrough transformed oil refining, finding widespread application and confirming oil's pivotal role as the lifeblood of 20th-century progress.

The genesis of the American oil industry was not a mere sequence of fortuitous discoveries but a tribute to the foresight of visionaries like George H. Bissell and John D. Rockefeller. Their initiatives triggered an industrial revolution that resonated across the nation and the globe, molding the trajectory of history in ways beyond their initial envisioning.
The Pioneering Days: George H. Bissell and the Birth of the American Oil Industry

History of Mobil Oil Corporation

The history began in 1870 when John D. Rockefeller and his associates formed the Standard Oil Company (Ohio).

In 1911, following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Standard Oil breaks up into 34 unrelated companies, including Jersey Standard, Socony and Vacuum Oil. Vacuum Oil Company, was founded in 1866 and, after 1882, became part of the Standard Oil Company and Trust. Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony), established by the trust in 1882.

Socony merged with Vacuum Oil Company, from which the Mobil name first originated, in 1931 and subsequently renamed itself to Socony-Vacuum Oil Company. The name was changed in 1955 to Socony Mobil Oil Company, Inc., and then in 1966 to Mobil Oil Corporation.

In 1974 Mobil introduces a synthetic automotive engine lubricant — Mobil 1. Mobil in 1974 diversified its activities into retail sale and packaging by acquiring the parent company of Montgomery Ward and Container Corporation of America.

In 1976, Mobil invented a process for converting methanol into high-octane gasoline. Today, all North American gasoline contains octane and gasoline grades are based on octane ratings.

Mobil sold the Container Corporation of America in 1986 and sold Montgomery Ward & Co. in 1988, thus clearing the way for Mobil to concentrate on its core businesses of petroleum extraction, processing, and distribution.

In 1994, Mobil established a subsidiary MEGAS (Mobil European Gas), which became responsible for Mobil's natural gas operations in Europe. In 1996, Mobil and BP merged their European refining and marketing of fuels and lubricants businesses.

In 1998, Mobil announced it was merging with Exxon to form ExxonMobil, reuniting the two largest descendants of Standard Oil. After the merger all products bearing the Mobil brand name retained the company’s long-standing logo of Pegasus, the winged horse.
History of Mobil Oil Corporation

Chevron Corporation – America multinational energy corporation

Chevron is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies. The company involved in every aspect of the industry, from exploration and production to transportation, refining and retail marketing, as well as chemical manufacturing and sales.

It has a diverse and highly skilled global workforce of approximately 42,628 people worldwide.

The company turns crude oil into a variety of products, including motor gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels, lubricants, asphalt and chemicals.

Chevron Corporation started business in 1879 as the Pacific Coasts Oil Company. The company was incorporated in San Francisco. The first successful oil well in California, Pico No. 4 launched California as an oil-producing state and demonstrated the spirit of innovation, ingenuity, optimism and risk-taking that has marked the company ever since.

Lacking the capital, it would need to seize marketing opportunities in this growing area, California Star Oil Works the company who owned the well was acquired by the Pacific Coast Oil Co. on Sept. 10, 1879.

In 1900, the thriving company was acquired by the West Coast operations of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust.

In 1911 the company emerged as an autonomous entity — Standard Oil Company (California) — following U.S. Supreme Court decision to divide the Standard Oil conglomerate into 34 independent companies.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the company began investing in international exploration and made the first major discoveries in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

In 1936, in partnership with Texaco, it formed Caltex, bringing in new markets in Asia, Africa and Europe. After the Second World War, continued expansion led to major discoveries in Indonesia, Australia, the UK North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1984, the company acquired Gulf Oil Corporation — nearly doubling the company’s crude oil and natural gas activities — and gained a significant presence in industrial chemicals, natural gas liquids and coal.

That same year, Standard also changed its name to Chevron, the well-known brand name of many of its products.

In 2001 the Chevron merged with Texaco Inc. (formerly The Texas Fuel Company, formed in Beaumont, Texas, in 1901) and changed name to ChevronTexaco Corporation. It became the second-largest U.S.-based energy company.

On October 5, 2020, the company acquired Noble Energy, Inc., an independent oil and gas exploration and production company. Noble’s principal upstream operations are in the United States, the Eastern Mediterranean and West Africa.
Chevron Corporation – America multinational energy

ExxonMobil Corporation

ExxonMobil, created by the merger of Exxon Corporation and Mobile Corporation on November 30, 1999 is the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, when measured by revenue.

The company is a direct descendent of John D. Rockefeller' Standard Oil Company, and the largest of the six privately owned super oil companies in the world, with daily production of 3.921 BOE (barrels of oil equivalent).

The merger reunited original elements of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust, which was broken up into thirty companies on the order of the U.S Supreme Court in 1911.

The largest of these successor companies was Standard Oil of New Jersey known as Jersey Standard, which marketed it major brand of gasoline under the name Esso. This company change its name to Exxon in 1972.
ExxonMobil Corporation

Standard Oil Co. Inc

The Standard Oil Company was the frost major industrial monopoly in the United States. At its peak, it controlled as much as eighty-five percent of oil refining in America.

In 1863, Rockefeller and his partners founded Rockefeller, Andrew and Flagler. When the partnership split, Rockefeller and Andrews bought out their partners for $72,500.

By 1868 this oil refining business was the world’s largest and in 1870 Rockefeller created Standard Oil Company of Ohio, capitalized at $1 million, which began integrating horizontally by buying out the competition, consolidating all oil refining into Standard Oil.

It had acquired Ohio Oil Company, which produced crude oil in 1889, an action that complemented its original nature as a combination of refineries in Cleveland.

At its height, its operation accounted for over 9 percent of all the oil produced and refined in the United States. Under the control of its principal shareholder, John Rockefeller (1839-1937), the company as one of the first and most powerful “trust” in American history, drawing the ire and criticism of Progressive Ear reformers who claimed that it was an illegal monopoly.

By the time Standard Oil Company dissolved in 1911, it had already operated as an integrated company in the four functions of producing, transporting, refining and marketing.
Standard Oil Co. Inc