The Oil Industry

1
The Oil Industry
2
Asphalt

• Thick crude oil was used by Native Americans
• Used to waterproof boats and baskets
• Also used as a base for medications

3

• Oil seeped to the surface of the ground.
• It was mainly used as grease for early wagon
  wheels
• 1840s Kerosene oil was a petroleum used for
  lighting oil lamps.
• One problem started fires that burned for a long
  time.

4
1859

• Edwin Drake drilled the 1st oil well in
  Titusville, Penn.
• Drilling quickly spread to Ohio and West Virginia
• By 1856, 2 million barrels were produced
• 40 gallons1 barrel

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No Oil

• Dry hole no oil
• First attempts to drill in TX were unsuccessful
• An oil field in East TX claimed
• to have 40 mediocre wells.

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Early 1900s

• A new use for petroleumthe automobile
• The automobile used gasoline, a by product of
  petroleum.
• World War I and farming equipment increased the
  demand for oil!

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Spindletop

• January 1910
• Gusher 500,000 barrels of oil in 6 days until
  it was capped.
• It was a salt dome full of crude oil and resulted
  in an oil

BOOM!!
8

• Frantic race to discover oil in Texas!
• Spindletop encouraged oil exploration in other
  states and in other parts of TX.
• Oil Production quadrupled
• Too much oil dropped the price to 5 cents a
  barrel
• Too much waste
• Need to regulate/restrict production

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Railroad Commission

• James Hogg governor of TX
• Creates the Railroad Commission
• Limited the number of wells in an area
• Wells had to be separated by certain distances
• Big companies followed the rules
• Little companies did not
• Penalties were created for
• breaking the law

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Assignment

• Page 430 Chapter 20 Assessment
• Terms Names
• Review Questions