Phillips Petroleum Company
Industry | Petroleum |
---|---|
Founded | 13 June 1917 |
Defunct | 30 August 2002 |
Fate | Merged with Conoco |
Successor | ConocoPhillips (2002) Phillips 66 (2012) |
Headquarters | Bartlesville, Oklahoma, U.S. |
Phillips Petroleum Company was an
On August 30, 2002,
In 2012, ConocoPhillips split into two separate companies. The legacy company kept its name, and spun off the midstream and downstream portions of its business.[3] The new company, which owns the refinery, chemical and pipeline assets formerly held in ConocoPhillips, is named Phillips 66, the brand name and trademark used by the original Phillips Petroleum from 1930 until the 2002 ConocoPhillips merger.[4]
History
The Phillips Petroleum Company was incorporated on June 13, 1917, by brothers Lee Eldas ("L.E.") Phillips and Frank Phillips, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, United States.[5][6] Their younger brother, Waite Phillips, was the benefactor of Philmont Scout Ranch. The company was headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.[7][8]
Phillips Petroleum rapidly became a fully integrated oil company that included oil and gas production, crude oil pipelines and refineries, and marketing of petroleum products.
Phillips Petroleum became heavily involved in the natural gas industry immediately after the discovery of the
In 1927, Phillips started up its first petroleum refinery in
Frank Phillips served as president of the company until 1938.
In 1942, the company bought more than 250,000 acres in the Hugoton-Panhandle gas fields and a 25 percent interest in the
World War II greatly stimulated the demand for petroleum products, especially high-octane aviation fuel and jet fuel. Phillips turned to technology to increase the octane rating of fuels for use in advanced engines. The company invented an HF
During the 1960s, Phillips expanded its international operations, particularly with exploration in Canada, Venezuela, and Colombia. It discovered the
In 1966, Phillips Petroleum bought Tidewater Oil Co.'s West Coast operations and rebranded its "Flying A" outlets to Phillips 66.
In 1983, Phillips Petroleum bought "General American Oil Company", a Delaware company that was headquartered in Dallas. The company was originally built by Algur H. Meadows in 1936 through a merger with oilman J. W. Gilliland and General American Finance System, a company Meadows formed with Ralph Trippett and Henry W. Peters in the early 1930s.[15] General American Oil Company was "one of the largest independent oil companies in the nation, with worldwide operations and interests."[15]
General American was founded in 1928 as a loan company, the General Finance Company, by Meadows, Trippett, and Henry W. Peters, and renamed the General American Oil Company in 1930. The company acquired over 170 oil wells, several refineries and the assets of the General American Finance System and its subsidiaries. By 1959 the company had 2,990 oil wells in fifteen states and Canada and was drilling for oil in Spain. Richard Rainwater became a partner in the company in 1969, as did Howard Hughes. In 1971, Peters acquired a minority stake in Howard Hughes' Hughes Tool Company, to which was later sold in 1972. In 1967 the General American Oil Company merged with its affiliate Premier Petrochemical of Pasadena, Texas.
In late 1984,
Phillips Petroleum Corp. and Chevron Corp. combined their worldwide chemical businesses in 2000 to form a new company, Chevron Phillips Chemical Corp., LLC. This excluded Chevron's oronite additives, which remained with its former parent. Chevron Phillips is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.[18]
Accidents
1980 North Sea accident
The Alexander L. Kielland, a drilling rig operating in the Ekofisk gas field of the North Sea, capsized on 27 March 1980. The incident killed 123 people. The rig was owned by a Norwegian firm, Stavanger Drilling, and was chartered by Phillips Norway, a subsidiary of Phillips Petroleum Co. Survivors and relatives of the deceased sued Phillips Petroleum Co. for damages in federal court in Ohio, but the trial court dismissed the case, and on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the appellate court agreed that Ohio courts had no jurisdiction in the case, even though the defendant did business in the state. The verdict was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.[19]
Phillips explosion of 1989
The Pasadena site was home to the 1989 Phillips Explosion, which killed 23 employees and contractors and injured 314 after cost-cutting efforts by the company. The initial explosion was equivalent to 2.4 tons of TNT exploding, damaging the homes of residents within a six-mile radius of the refinery. The initial explosion mushroom cloud was visible to area residents within a 15-mile radius of the site.
Phillips explosion of 1999
Two contractors were killed and three men were injured in an explosion on the morning of Wednesday, 23 June 1999, at Phillips Petroleum Co.'s K-Resin (styrene butadiene copolymer) plant in its chemical complex in Pasadena, Texas. An alarm sounded at 11:30 am when the blast occurred and a fire erupted. It took more than an hour for Phillips' onsite fire department to extinguish the blaze.[20]
Those killed were 24-year-old Juan Martinez and his uncle Jose Inez Rangel, who were performing a hydrostatic test on a pipe until they were burned to death by 500 °F molten plastic.[21] Both Martinez and Rangel were employed by Zachry Construction Corp.[22]
Phillips explosion of 2000
The Pasadena facility exploded again in 2000, resulting in one fatality. The explosion was again located in K-Resin plant. Phillips eventually sold off the K-Resin brand to
Leadership
Chairman of the Board | President |
---|---|
Frank F. Phillips, 1939–1949 |
Frank F. Phillips, 1917–1939 |
See also
- Chevron Phillips
- Phillips 66
- Phillips Disaster of 1989
- Phillips explosion of 2000
- 2001 Humber Refinery explosion
References
- ^ "40th anniversary for Ekofisk".
- ^ a b c d e f g h Christopher J. Castaneda, ."Phillips Petroleum Company." Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed 04 February 2013.
- ^ Helman, Christopher. "As ConocoPhillips Spins Off Refining Assets, Think Twice Before Buying The New Phillips 66". Forbes.
- ^ Sebastian, Simone and Emily Pickerell, "ConocoPhillips split becomes official as company 'shrinks to grow'." Houston Chronicle, April 30, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2013.[1]
- ^ "Phillips, Lee Eldas | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". www.okhistory.org. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
- ^ "1929-1910". ConocoPhillips. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
- ^ "Who We Are." Phillips Petroleum Company. January 11, 1998. Retrieved on January 16, 2010.
- ^ "Contact Page." Phillips Petroleum Company. 20 April 2000. Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
- ISBN 1-881508-56-0. P. 104.
- ^ Hitchcock, Doug (August 1983). The KU-Bartlesville connection. Lawrence Journal-World. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- ^ 15 U.S.C. 717
- ^ 348 U.S. 851 (1954)
- ^ Concoco Phillips Corp., "Phillips Company History." Retrieved February 4, 2013."Phillips Company History". Archived from the original on 2011-10-19. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
- ^ Encyclopedia.com "Phillips Petroleum Co." Retrieved February 5, 2013
- ^ a b "General American Oil Company". 15 June 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
- ISBN 0-395-41433-4. Pp. 217–235.
- ^ "Raiders Leave Mark On Phillips' Town - tribunedigital-chicagotribune". Retrieved 2018-07-30.
- ^ Chevron Phillips Chemical Corp. LLC-Overview. Retrieved 04 February 2013.[2]
- ^ Associated Press. "Court won't hear appeal in Phillips Petroleum case." 22 April 1985. Retrieved 09 February 2013.[3]
- ^ "Explosion Kills Two at Phillips K-Resin Plant". Retrieved 2007-12-09.[dead link]
- ^ "Tort Reform Lone Star Style". Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
- ^ "CHEVRON PHILLIPS CHEMICAL CO LLC, Form 10-K405, K-Resin Facility Incidents, Filing Date Mar 15, 2002". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
- ^ "INEOS Styrolution announces agreement to acquire K-Resin® SBC Business". www.ineos.com. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
- ^ "Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC - Worldwide Operations (hotlink sequence: Polyethylene, Texas, Pasadena)". Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
- ^ "Docket H054A, EX. 50-1-2-24, 24.0 Chromium Catalyst Users". pp. 24–5 (5 of 20). Archived from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2008-02-22.