A Vacuum Oil Company subsidiary in Cape Town, South Africa, trademarked a flying horse logo inspired by Pegasus of Greek mythology. Based in Rochester, New York, Vacuum Oil had built a successful lubricants business long before gasoline was a branded product. (more…)
As the 20th century approached, Ohio oil wells producing far out on a reservoir marked the true beginning of the U.S. offshore petroleum industry, according to Mercer County historians.
America’s first offshore drilling once was generally acknowledged to be over Louisiana’s Caddo Lake in 1911 — until researchers in Mercer and Auglaize counties in Ohio said otherwise. The oil patch sleuths pointed to multiple county documents recording oil wells producing above Grand Lake St. Marys at least 20 years before drillers built platforms on Caddo Lake. (more…)
The world’s first mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) began in the mind of World War II Navy veteran Alden “Doc” Laborde, who believed a self-sufficient oil rig could be placed on a barge for deeper offshore drilling. Laborde applied his naval experience to design and build the first submersible offshore drilling rig.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 2012 designated Mr. Charlie an ASME Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. Today, Laborde’s offshore platform is a Louisiana museum and education center, a national historic landmark, and “glimpse into the past” for the offshore petroleum industry.
