Progress
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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.
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PENNZOIL PLANT #3/ KOPPERS TAR & CHEMICAL DIVISION - NEVILLE SYNTHESE - RHONE POULENC/ MERISOL
Venango County’s last link to petrochemical processing has operated on the Oil City - Rouseville Road (Route 8) since 1943 - 1944. Originally constructed to process 100 -octane gasoline for U.S. Navy airplanes and PT boats, the facility now manufactures BHT antioxidant preservatives and meta cresol. Here is its history:
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PRODUCTS FROM PETROLEUM
Since the early days of the petroleum industry in the 1860’s through present times, a nearly countless list of distinct petroleum derived products have been discovered or created by man.
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The 42 Gallon Barrel [History]
As crude prices hit record highs, questions arise over barrel measurement [history]
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Three Fabulous Decades
The decades from 1900 to 1930 were the period of accelerated development for the petroleum industry. Accelerated development is when improvements multiply, prices are reduced, new markets are tapped, and the industry swiftly expands.
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Oil Strategy in World War II
The Allies hastened their victory by crippling German synthetic gasoline capacity and by severing Japan’s precarious supply lines.
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Oil's Invisible Stepsister: The Natural Gas Industry
Natural gas, born and bred in the same Appalachian region as oil, was the energy industry’s oft-ignored and underutilized stepchild. The production and use of natural gas in the nineteenth century was centered in the Appalachian oil region, which enjoyed the exclusive utilization of the clean-burning, cost-efficient fuel for nearly a century before the highly populated East Coast cities of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. In fact, by 1906, Pennsylvania’s natural gas was valued more than its petroleum.
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When Kerosene Was King
Gasoline, the precious liquid fuel of our American lifestyle, is the premier refined product of the American petroleum industry. This was not always the case, not at all. For more than fifty years after Drake Well, kerosene – not gasoline was the principal refined product of the petroleum industry. Throughout the nineteenth century, kerosene was king.