Promote the U.S. to lead the World in Oil Production
August 27, 1859
- In 1855, looking for a more efficient replacement for asphalt-based kerosene, George Henry Bissell and a group of investors formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. They hired Edwin Drake who completed the first drilled oil well—often seen as the beginning of the modern oil era—at Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania on August 27, 1859
Seneca Oil Company
- Their renamed Seneca Oil Company was soon overshadowed by the Standard Oil Company, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870 and went on to control close to 80 percent of the oil products market
Standard Oil into 34 different companies
- With the introduction of electricity in 1882, natural gas and oil were no longer needed to fuel light. The natural gas industry shifted to heating and cooking applications, and the oil industry found demand in the newly invented automobile. In 1909, anti-trust laws forced Standard Oil into 34 different companies, but by the 1940s three of them, along with four other international companies, grew to dominate the market and were nicknamed the "Seven Sisters."