Wyoming Oil & Energy Stock Certificates

The oil and gas industry in the United States was born in 1859 with the discovery of oil deposits in Pennsylvania. Several companies grew out of this first boom, but soon all of those small companies were bought up to form larger corporations. In 1911, the US Supreme Court declared that one such corporation, the Standard Trust, was monopolizing the industry and restraining trade and growth. Standard Trust was forced to dissolve into thirty-four smaller companies.

Oil production in the U.S. continued to climb. By 1920, oil production reached 450 million barrels, which lead to a fear that the nation was going to run out of fuel. Scientists and government officials predicted that the U.S. would drill up all of its oil by 1939. The fear that American oil reserves were nearly exhausted ended abruptly in 1924, with the discovery of enormous new oil fields in Texas, Oklahoma, and California. These discoveries, along with production from new fields in Mexico, the Soviet Union, and Venezuela, combined to drastically depress oil prices. By 1931, with crude oil selling for 10 cents a barrel, domestic oil producers demanded restrictions on production in order to raise prices. New Deal legislation and then World War II saw to a resurgence of the industry.