This Week in Oil and Gas History

March 17, 1890
Sun Oil Company of Ohio (SUNOCO) is incorporated. Yep, the original oil companies were based in the north.

March 16, 1911
Mobil Oil's Pegasus was trademarked. Later a lighted version of the red flying horse was installed on the company HQ in Dallas and it became a landmark for early travellers.

March 20, 1919
The eeevil American Petroleum Institute (API) was formed. Environmentalists complain.

March 18, 1937
There was a natural gas explosion at the New London HS in east Texas. It killed 298 people. This accident was the reason that natural gas now smells the way it does. Natural gas has no odor and its accumulation in the high school basement went undetected. Since then, a chemical called mercaptan has been added so that small amounts of it assault the nasal membranes. One of the reporters who covered the story was a young Walter Cronkite.

March 17, 1949
The first hydraulic frac takes place near Duncan, Oklahoma. No aquifers were damaged.