our history

Over the last 125 years ExxonMobil has evolved from a regional marketer of kerosene in the U.S. to the largest publicly traded petroleum and petrochemical enterprise in the world. Today we operate in most of the world's countries and are best known by our familiar brand names: Exxon, Esso and Mobil. We make the products that drive modern transportation, power cities, lubricate industry and provide petrochemical building blocks that lead to thousands of consumer goods.

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Edwin Drake and 'Uncle Billy' in front of the first successful oil well. The colonel's discovery triggers an oil boom that parallels the gold rush of a decade earlier. 1859 Colonel Edwin Drake and Uncle Billy Smith drill the first successful oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
John D. Rockefeller The name Standard is chosen to signify high, uniform quality. 1870 Rockefeller and his associates form the Standard Oil Company (Ohio), with combined facilities constituting the largest refining capacity of any single firm in the world.
Vacuum Oil building Matthew Ewing and Hiram Bond Everest founded Vacuum Oil Company in 1866 upon patenting a new method of distilling kerosene in a vacuum that produced a high-quality lubricant. 1879 Standard Oil Co. purchases a three-quarters interest in Vacuum Oil Company for $200,000. As a lubricants pioneer, Vacuum Oil introduces a number of popular products, including the revolutionary Gargoyle 600-W Steam Cylinder Oil.
Standard Oil logo 1882 Standard Oil lubricates Thomas Edison's first central generating system. Also in this year, Standard Oil Trust forms to include the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Jersey Standard) and the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony).
Standard Oil building 1885 The Standard Oil Trust moves its headquarters to 26 Broadway, New York City. The nine-story office building becomes a landmark.

The same year, Vacuum develops Gargoyle Arctic engine oils for newly designed generators and motors that operate at speeds of up to 1,000 rpm.
Wright Brothers' first flight 1903 The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orvillle, use both Jersey Standard fuel and Mobiloil (Vacuum) lubricants for their historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Kerosene lamp 1906 Socony gains a strong foothold in the vast market for kerosene in China by developing small lamps that burned kerosene efficiently. The lamps become known as Mei-Foo, from the Chinese symbols for Socony, meaning "beautiful confidence."
Buildings 1911 Following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Standard Oil breaks up into 34 unrelated companies, including Jersey Standard, Socony and Vacuum Oil.

The year also marks the first time Jersey Standard's sales of kerosene are surpassed by gasoline, a product that in the early days had often been discarded as a nuisance.
Ralph De Palma winning the Indianapolis 500 1915 Ralph De Palma, winner of the Indianapolis 500, is the first of many Indy winners to use Mobil products. His average speed: 89.84 mph.
Men, including Wallace E. Pratt, standing outdoors. 1919 Jersey Standard acquires a 50 percent interest in Humble Oil & Refining Company of Texas. It was during this year that Humble, led by its pioneering Chief Geologist Wallace Pratt, employed micropaleontology, the study of microscopic fossils contained in cuttings and core samples from drilling, as an aid in finding oil.
Chemical plant 1920 Jersey Standard researchers produce rubbing alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol — the first commercial petrochemical.
Esso Service Station 1926 Embodying the phonetic rendition of the initials ‘S’ and ‘O’ in Standard Oil, Jersey Standard brings out a new blend of fuel under the trade name Esso.
Oil field This field is the first in the U.S. to be discovered by using the technique of seismic surveying, and the first fairly deep salt dome to be discovered by the use of geophysical instruments. 1927 Humble geophysicists use a refraction seismograph and discover an oil field in Sugarland, Texas.
Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh 1928 Amelia Earhart uses Mobiloil to protect Friendship when she makes her historic solo flight across the Atlantic. The previous year, Charles Lindbergh used Mobiloil in the Spirit of St. Louis on the first solo flight across the Atlantic.
Drawing of Eugene P. Houdry 1936 First commercial unit in a cat-cracking refinery begins operation at Socony-Vacuum’s Paulsboro, New Jersey, refinery. The unit used a process developed by French scientist Eugene P. Houdry with the financial backing of Socony-Vacuum. The process added a clay-like catalyst to the cracking process to boost gasoline yields and octane rating.
Woman producing butyl 1937 Jersey Standard researchers produce an artificial rubber, butyl. Today, butyl is used in the creation of tires, surgical tapes, protective coatings and more.
Chemist 1938 The world's first commercial production of alkylate begins at a Humble plant in Baytown, Texas. Alkylation made possible the manufacturing of iso-octane, used as a blending agent to produce 100-octane aviation gasoline.
The “Four Horsemen” demonstrating their fluid catalytic cracking process. 1942 The world’s first fluid catalytic cracker goes onstream at Louisiana Standard’s Baton Rouge refinery. The process, developed by four Jersey Standard researchers known as the “four horsemen,” improved on the Houdry method for cat cracking and eventually became the industry standard for producing gasoline. Fortune magazine called it “the most revolutionary chemical-engineering achievement of the last 50 years.”
Uniflo motor oil can 1952 Jersey Standard introduces Uniflo motor oil, the first multigrade motor oil recommended for both summer and winter use.
Esso Education Foundation booklet 1955 Jersey Standard establishes the Esso Education Foundation, a program that gives financial aid to private colleges and universities.
1958 Pan American Airways flies its first trans-Atlantic Boeing 707 flight from New York to London. The flight is fueled by Mobil aviation fuel.
Put a Tiger in Your Tank
– Big Band music plays in background

Driver: Pardon me, Mister. But what’s the idea of the Tiger?
Station Attendant: The what, sir?
Driver: The tiger leaning on the pump!
Station Attendant: Oh, well you see, our new power formula Enco Extra gasoline puts a tiger in your tank.
Driver: Well, then put a tiger in my tank!
Station Attendance: Certainly, sir.

Driver: What does the, uh, tiger do?
Station Attendant: Well, you’ll notice several things — smooth performance for one.
Power formula Enco Extra gives you the high octane many cars need — and extra power.
You see, our new power formula cleans the carburetor, neutralizes engine deposits, and helps restore power you’ve been losing.

Driver: Amazing. Where is he now?
Station Attendant: Who?
Driver: The tiger!
Station Attendant: In your tank, of course!

Tiger: Growl.

Driver: Well, I’ll be darned.

1959 An advertising copywriter in Chicago comes up with the advertising slogan “Put a tiger in your tank.”
3-D Seismic graph This breakthrough technology, coupled with the use of massive parallel computers in seismic imaging, has helped our geologists sharply reduce finding costs since the 1980s while increasing new field resource additions. 1963 Humble invents 3-D seismic technology, a revolution that completely changes the way the industry searches for oil and gas resources.
Cover of 'A Brief History of Mobil' brochure 1966 Mobil celebrates 100 years since the founding of the Vacuum Oil Company in 1866 and changes its name to Mobil Oil Corporation. The company launches a wide-reaching identity program to emphasize the Mobil trade name.
1972 Jersey Standard officially changes its name to Exxon Corporation. The name change is approved by Jersey Standard shareholders in a special shareholders’ meeting.
Mobil 1 Oil Can 1974 Mobil introduces a synthetic automotive engine lubricant — Mobil 1. Today, Mobil 1 is the world’s leading synthetic motor oil.
Beryl Alpha, world's first concrete production platform. 1975 Mobil participates in completion of Beryl A, the world's first concrete production platform. The 50-story-high structure was the prototype for other concrete deepwater facilities operating in the North Sea.
Zeolyte catalyst – ZSM-5 Discovered in the late 1960s, Mobil patented the ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst in 1972. 1976 Mobil invents a process for converting methanol into high-octane gasoline through the use of the company’s versatile ZSM-5 catalyst.
Man Working in environmental health research facility 1980 Exxon opens its own facility for environmental health research at East Millstone, New Jersey. Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. conducts research to further assure the safety of Exxon operations and products.
Cover of 'Century of Discovery' Brochure 1982 Exxon celebrates 100 years since the formation of the Standard Oil Trust in 1882. In its first hundred years, the company evolved from a domestic refiner and distributor of kerosene to a large multinational corporation, involved at every level of oil and gas exploration, production, refining and marketing, and petrochemicals manufacturing.
Example of 3-D Microtomography 1986 Exxon Research and Engineering invents a powerful new imaging technique called 3-D microtomography to study the internal structure of opaque objects without damaging them.
Men on the rocky beach of Prince William Sound, Alaska. Learn more about the Exxon Valdez. 1989 On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound in Alaska. The Valdez oil spill was a tragic accident that ExxonMobil deeply regrets. The company took immediate responsibility for the spill, cleaned it up and voluntarily compensated those who claimed direct damages.
Man Looking at metallocene catalyst 1989 Exxon introduces Exxpol, a single-site metallocene catalyst used to produce consistent, controllable molecular structures that make plastic and rubber products tougher and impact-resistant, with less haze and with excellent organoleptics (low off-taste and odor).
Bengal tigers Since its establishment, ExxonMobil has provided $1 million annually in support of the Save The Tiger Fund. 1995 Exxon establishes the Save The Tiger Fund in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Save The Tiger Fund is dedicated to supporting the conservation of Asia’s remaining wild tigers.
Person Using Speedpass 1997 Mobil introduces Speedpass, an electronic system which automatically activates the pump and charges purchases to a credit card. Speedpass is similar to the electronic toll technology successfully used on subway, bus and highway systems around the world.
Exxon and Mobil executives 1999 On November 30, 1999, Exxon and Mobil join to form Exxon Mobil Corporation. "This merger will enhance our ability to be an effective global competitor in a volatile world economy and in an industry that is more and more competitive," said Lee Raymond and Lou Noto, chairmen and chief executive officers of Exxon and Mobil, respectively.
SCANfining pellets 2001 ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company (EMRE) develops the SCANfining process, which uses a new proprietary catalyst to selectively remove more than 95 percent of the sulfur from gasoline while minimizing octane loss.
Study areas include solar energy, hydrogen, biofuels and advanced transportation. Learn more at about GCEP 2002 ExxonMobil, joined by other sponsors, initiates the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University — a pioneering research effort to identify technologies that can meet energy demand with dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Phil and Amy Mickelson 2005 ExxonMobil partners with professional golfer Phil Mickelson and his wife, Amy, to launch the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy. The academy is designed to provide third- through fifth-grade teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to motivate kids to pursue careers in science and math.
Qatar 2005 ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum, with other joint-venture partners, expand development of the giant North Field offshore Qatar, the largest nonassociated gas field in the world.
Sakhalin Island Located on Sakhalin Island offshore eastern Russia, the record-setting Z-11 achieved a total measured depth of 37,016 feet (11,282 meters), or more than seven miles. 2007 Exxon Neftegas Limited (a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation) completes the drilling of the Z-11 well, the longest measured depth extended-reach drilling (ERD) well in the world.
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