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American Refining Group, Inc.
American Refining Group, Inc. (ARG) is co-owned by Harry Halloran and based outside of Philadelphia in West Conshohocken. Halloran is the Chief Executive Officer of ARG. In March 1997, the American Refining Group purchased the former Kendall Refinery in Bradford.
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Writing History
We are always writing and re-writing history. It is done years or decades or even centuries after the fact. But it is always interesting to go back to the primary sources, sometimes documents or written records and even newspaper accounts
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Forest Oil Corporate Logo
A producer of oil and natural gas, Forest Oil Corp. is credited with developing secondary recovery of oil technique (waterflooding) in the early 1900s - a revolutionary event for the oil and gas industry at that time.
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Yellow Dog Inventor
Rare is the community oil and gas museum that doesn't have a "yellow dog" in its collection. The two-wicked lamp is an oilfield icon.
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NEWTON GAS WELL (DOTYVILLE OIL FIELD)…. SPEECHLEY GAS WELL (COAL HILL)
William F. Newton, John B. Wheaton and John S. Tracy (Tracey), Titusville, PA oil producers and lumbermen, commenced drilling a wildcat oil well on Captain A.H. Nelson’s Dotyville, Oil Creek Township, Crawford County, PA farm, 1872. Located five miles east of Titusville, the well was drilled with the intention of extending the Church Run oil field.
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OIL MINES / OIL SHAFTS - TARENTUM, TIDIOUTE, PETROLEUM CENTRE, FRANKLIN, FUNKVILLE (BULL RUN), PLEASANTVILLE….
“Mining for petroleum” has been attempted numerous times since the Drake Well’s completion, 1859. Nearly all the early oil shaft operations were failures. Only one - drilled during World War II - was a success in the original Oil Region (although there have been successes in other parts of the United States and foreign countries). Plans for another oil mine are underway at this writing.
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FROM THE OIL FIELDS TO DRAKE WELL MUSEUM - SAND HILL OIL COMPANY LEASE (CENTRAL POWER - COMPRESSOR HOUSE / OIL LEASE EXHIBIT)
“There also has been considerable negotiation going on recently in the Tidioute district for the purchase outright of gasoline - making leases, especially in the gas - pump territory whose gases and oil vapors are richest for gasoline making purposes. Several properties are said to be under option at this time, at what, but a relatively short time ago would have been considered very stiff prices.” - The Petroleum Gazette, March, 1916.
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YOUNG & LOCKE MACHINE SHOP / EDMUND R. YOUNG & SONS MACHINE SHOP (JACOBSON ENGINE MANUFACTURING COMPANY), TITUSVILLE, PA
The Young & Locke Iron Works, organized in 1879 by Edmund R. Young and Robert D. Locke, located opposite the Titusville Iron Works [on South Franklin Street], engaged in the business of making and repairing engines, boilers, steam pumps, and giving steady employment to 20 expert mechanics, enjoy a large and growing business, the confidence of the trade and a sound and enviable financial standing” - GEORGE A. CHASE, c. 1889.
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NATIONAL TRANSIT PIPE LINES SILVER RUN PUMP STATION (GORDON & TIBBENS LEASE, SOUTH PENN OIL COMPANY) - FROM BULLY HILL (FRANKLIN), SANDYCREEK TOWNSHIP, VENANGO COUNTY TO DRAKE WELL MUSEUM AND PARK
Drake Well Museum and Park, near Titusville, has added several outdoor displays since 1980. One of the most popular - after the California Standard Rig and Central Power - Compressor House - is a complete pipeline field pump station. National Transit Company owned and operated this station for approximately 70 years near Franklin, Venango County, PA.
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CITIES SERVICE COMPANY / CREW LEVICK COMPANY (PENNSYLVANIA PARAFFINE WORKS AND BESSEMER REFINING COMPANY / BESSEMER PIPE LINE), TITUSVILLE’S LAST OIL REFINERY (1893 / 1903 / 1912 - 1950)
Titusville’s last operating oil refinery, erected in 1903, operated 47 years. This 3500 BOPD (originally 660 BOPD) also included a sister, neighboring 500 BOPD plant - with crude oil gathering pipe line system - constructed in 1911 - 1912. Both were successors to an earlier plant founded in a Standard Oil subsidiary’s former facility.