Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the North Sea on December 23, 1969, at a position that was later named Ekofisk.[1]
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]
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 Panhandle gas field of Texas and the Hugoton field in Kansas. By 1925, it was the largest producer of natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States.[2]
In 1927, Phillips started up its first petroleum refinery in Borger, Texas, designed to produce gasoline as an automotive fuel. The refinery also produced other petroleum fractions (e.g., kerosene, fuel oils). It opened its first service station, to sell gasoline, in Wichita, Kansas on 19 November 1927. In 1930, the company developed its "Phillips 66" trademark: according to company lore, a Phillips official was road-testing the company's newest gasoline, commented that the car was going "like 60" when his driver replied "Sixty nothing ... we're doing 66!", all while driving on U.S. Highway 66 in Oklahoma near Tulsa, resulting in the number 66 superimposed on the U.S. Highway symbol for Route 66.[2][9]
Frank Phillips served as president of the company until 1938.[10] He then turned over the presidency to Kenneth S. "Boots" Adams, but continued as chairman of the board until 1949, when he was 76 years old.[citation needed]
In 1942, the company bought more than 250,000 acres in the Hugoton-Panhandle gas fields and a 25 percent interest in the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co.[2] In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Phillips Petroleum vs. State of Wisconsin which held that under the Natural Gas Act,[11] the federal government should regulate the prices which natural gas producers charge when selling gas at the wellhead.[12] Phillips then divested itself of the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Interest, but remained a major supplier of natural gas.[2]
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 alkylation process in 1940.[13] The American petrochemical industry took off, first making such as styrene, ethylene, propylene and butadiene.[2] After the war, it formed a subsidiary, Phillips Chemical Co., which entered the fertilizer business by producing anhydrous ammonia from natural gas.[14] The company then built a complex on the Houston Ship Channel devoted to making petrochemicals and polymers.[2]
During the 1960s, Phillips expanded its international operations, particularly with exploration in Canada, Venezuela, and Colombia. It discovered the Ekofisk gas field in the North Sea in 1969.[2]
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, Mesa Power LP Co., led by T. Boone Pickens Jr., attempted a hostile takeover of Phillips Petroleum.[16] After Mesa failed, Carl Icahn attempted a separate hostile takeover. Phillips remained an independent company but recapitalized with greater debt.[17] This large debt caused Phillips Petroleum to begin selling many of its assets, including refineries, and led to the 2002 merger with Conoco.
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]
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
Site of Phillips explosions of 1989, 1999 and 2000 (as photographed in 2008).
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]
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 INEOS Styrolution in 2016.[23] Today, the Pasadena facility only manufactures high-density polyethylene (HDPE) [24] This complex employs 750 workers for the production of specialty chemicals, including 150 operations and maintenance personnel.[25]
Leadership
Chairman of the Board
President
Frank F. Phillips, 1939–1949 vacant, 1949–1951 Kenneth S. Adams, 1951–1968 William W. Keeler, 1968–1973 John M. Houchin, 1973–1974 William F. Martin, 1974–1982 William C. Douce, 1982–1985 Cecil J. Silas, 1985–1994 W. Wayne Allen, 1994–1999 James J. Mulva, 1999–2002
Frank F. Phillips, 1917–1939 Kenneth S. Adams, 1939–1951 Paul Endacott, 1951–1962 Stanley F. Learned, 1962–1967 William W. Keeler, 1967–1968 John M. Houchin, 1968–1973 William F. Martin, 1973–1980 William C. Douce, 1980–1982 Cecil J. Silas, 1982–1985 Glenn A. Cox, 1985–1991 W. Wayne Allen, 1991–1994 James J. Mulva, 1994–2002
Ponca City is a city in Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the time of the 2010 census.
Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County and Osage County, Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is 47 miles (76 km) north of Tulsa and 18 miles (29 km) south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Caney River runs through Bartlesville.
Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Dating back to 1886, the company has transitioned from a vertically integrated energy company to a distributor of fuels. It was previously engaged in oil, natural gas exploration and production, refining, chemical manufacturing, and retail fuel sales, but divested these businesses. Sunoco is the largest independent distributor of fuels in the United States.
Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headquartered in El Segundo, California, United States.
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California, it is headquartered in San Ramon, California, and active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation.
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.
Ekofisk is an oil field in block 2/4 of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea about 320 km (200 mi) southwest of Stavanger. Discovered in 1969 by Phillips Petroleum Company, it remains one of the most important oil fields in the North Sea. This was the first discovery of oil after the drilling of over 200 exploration wells in the North Sea "triggered" by the Groningen gas field discovery. In 1971, Phillips started producing directly to tankers from four subsea wells. Oil production is planned to continue until at least 2050.
The Phillips 66 Company is an American multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Company, helped ground the newly reconfigured Phillips 66. The company today was formed ten years after Phillips merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips. The merged company spun off its refining, chemical, and retail assets into a new company bearing the Phillips name. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 1, 2012, under the ticker PSX.
Bayway Refinery is a refining facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey, owned by Phillips 66. Located in Linden and Elizabeth, New Jersey, and bisected by Morses Creek, it is the northernmost refinery on the East Coast of the United States. The oil refinery converts crude oil into gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, propane and heating oil. As of 2007, the facility processed approximately 238,000 bbl/d (37,800 m3/d) of crude oil, producing 145,000 bbl/d (23,100 m3/d) of gasoline and 110,000 bbl/d (17,000 m3/d) of distillates. Its products are delivered to East Coast customers via pipeline transport, barges, railcars and tank trucks.
Conoco is an American petroleum brand that is operating under the ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. One of the several successors of Standard Oil, Conoco was a subsidiary of that company from 1884 until its 1911 divestiture when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to decouple the monopolized entity.
Norpipe is a subsea oil and natural gas pipelines system in the North Sea. It supplies oil from the Norwegian Ekofisk and associated fields in the North Sea to the United Kingdom and natural gas to Germany.
The Teesside Refinery was an oil refinery and chemical plant situated just south of Seaton Carew on the River Tees in County Durham. In 2000, it was bought by Petroplus from ICI and Phillips Petroleum Company. Refining was suspended in 2009, although the site continues to operate as a terminal and storage facility.
The Ferndale Refinery is an oil refinery near Ferndale, Washington, United States, that is owned by Phillips 66. It is located in the Cherry Point Industrial Zone west of Ferndale and had a capacity of 101,000 barrels per day in 2015, 64th largest in the nation. The Ferndale Refinery produces predominantly transportation fuels consumed in local markets and also includes secondary processing facilities such as a fluid catalytic cracker, an alkylation unit, hydotreating units, and a naphtha reformer. The plant follows a 10-5-3-2 crack spread, meaning that for ten barrels of crude feedstock, the refinery produces five barrels of gasoline, three barrels of distillate, and two barrels of fuel oil.
The Seaway Crude Pipeline System (SCPS), commonly known as the Seaway Pipeline, is an oil pipeline system which transports crude oil between Cushing, Oklahoma and Freeport, Texas, and through the Texas City, Texas Terminal and Distribution System on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The Seaway is an important crude oil transfer link between two petroleum regions within the United States.
Kenneth Stanley "Boots" Adams was an American business executive, University of Kansas booster, and civic philanthropist of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Adams began his career with the Phillips Petroleum Company in 1920 as a clerk in the warehouse department. Twelve years later, he was chosen by founder and president Frank Phillips to fill the newly created position of Assistant to the President. On April 26, 1938, Adams was elected president of Phillips Petroleum Company by the unanimous vote of the company's board of directors.
Gulf Canada was a Canadian integrated petroleum company that existed between 1944 and 2001. Gulf Oil Corporation began operating in Canada in 1942, and two years later formed a Canadian subsidiary called the Canadian Gulf Oil Company. In 1956 Canadian Gulf Oil merged with the British American Oil Company and until 1969 operated under the British American name. In 1969, British American amalgamated with its subsidiaries into a new company called Gulf Oil Canada Limited.
Bangladesh is the sixteenth-largest producer of natural gas in Asia. Gas supplies meet 56% of domestic energy demand. However, the country faces an acute energy crisis in meeting the demands of its vast and growing population. Bangladesh is a net importer of crude oil and petroleum products. The energy sector is dominated by state-owned companies, including Petrobangla and the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation. Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, Gazprom and ONGC are major international companies engaged in Bangladesh's hydrocarbon industry, with Chevron's gas fields accounting for 50% of natural gas production.
Greg C. Garland is an American businessman in oil and natural gas and chemicals industries, the executive chairman of Phillips 66.
The Teesside oil terminal is a major crude oil reception, processing, storage and export facility at Seal Sands, Middlesbrough. It receives and processes crude oil delivered by the subsea NORPIPE pipeline from the Norwegian Ekofisk field and the UK Fulmar and J-Block fields. The terminal includes facilities for exporting stabilised crude oil and liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) by tanker and pipeline.
Following the 1911 Supreme Court ruling that found Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly, the company was broken up into 34 different entities, divided primarily by region and activity. Many of these companies later became part of the Seven Sisters, which dominated global petroleum production in the 20th century, and became a majority of today's largest investor-owned oil companies, with most tracing their roots back to Standard Oil. Some descendants of Standard Oil were also given exclusive rights to the Standard Oil name.
↑ Sebastian, Simone and Emily Pickerell, "ConocoPhillips split becomes official as company 'shrinks to grow'." Houston Chronicle, April 30, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
↑ 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.
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