| Timeline |
| 1913 |
Thermal cracking
introduced. |
| 1914-15 |
Square kelly
rotary rig introduced. |
| 1920 |
Coal begins to
suffer from cheap oil and natural gas prices. Gas Regulation Act
introduces sale of gas by BTU. |
| 1920-29 |
Liquid fuels
created by synthesizing hydrocarbons; Fischer and Tropsch. |
| 1921 |
Ethyl gasoline
introduced; Charles Kettering, Thomas Midgley Jr., T.A.
Boyd. |
| 1924 |
American
Petroleum Association commences standardization of oilfield equipment
and material. |
| 1924 |
Bubble-cap
fractionating tower for petroleum refining developed. |
| 1926 |
Bergius begins
single-stage process for liquefaction and coal hydrogenation for
motor fuel in Germany. |
| 1928 |
Submersible
drilling barge patented by Louis Giliasso. |
| 1932 |
First well from
an independent platform drilled off the West Coast. |
| 1932 |
Submersible
drilling barge designed for swamp oil by Texas Company. |
| 1933 |
First controlled
direction drilling of oil wells developed at Huntington
Beach. |
| 1936 |
Catalytic
cracking introduced. |
| 1939 |
Oil rigs now made
of steel structures. |
| 1940 |
Underwater
drilling in Gulf of Mexico begins. |
| 1942 |
Fine-powder
fluid-bed production of ingredients for 100-octane aviation
gasoline. |
| 1947 |
Vladimir Haensel
invents platforming. |
| 1947 |
Sufficient oil
not found in the United States, according to U.S. Department of
State. |
| 1947 |
Floating drilling
tender that can withstand severe ocean environment is demonstrated by
Kerr-McGee Oil Industry. |
| 1950-55 | Koppers-Totzek gasifier introduced. |
| 1954 |
Submersible
mobile drilling unit operates in Gulf of Mexico for shallow water
installations. |
| 1955 |
First jack-up oil
drilling rig designed. |
| 1960 |
OPEC founded. |
| 1965-69 |
U.S. gas shortage
threatened due to lack of financial incentives for
exploration. |
| 1967 |
Pilot plant built
for extraction-hydrogenation process to produce synthetic
oil. |
| 1973 |
Oil embargo
created by cut in OPEC oil supplies. |
| 1974 |
Alberta tar sands
synthetic fuel project starts. |
| 1975-79 |
U.S. natural gas
deregulated and gas prices rise. |
| 1982 |
Tallest giant oil
platform for North Sea exploration built in Inverness,
Scotland. |
