Tidewater Oil Company

Tide-Water Pipe Company

In November 1878, the Tide-Water Pipe Company was founded by Byron D. Benson (ca. 1828-February 1888), Robert E. Hopkins, and David McKelvy (died May 10, 1918). Other sources include as founders Samuel Q. Brown (died October 5, 1909) and Alanson Ashford Sumner.

The capital at incorporation was $625,000 of which $500,000 was paid in as cash and $125,000 represented the rights-of-way for the Seaboard Pipe Line which were eventually not used. The Reading Railroad Company subscribed to $250,000 of the stock.

Benson, Hopkins, and McKelvy had forged a deal with Franklin Gowen, president of the Reading Railroad, to build a pipeline from the new Bradford oil field at Coryville, Pennsylvania, eastward to Williamsport, where the oil would be loaded into Reading tank cars for transport to independent refiners in Philadelphia and New York. Gowen agreed to put up $250,000, half the predicted cost of building the pipeline.

The result was the world's first long-distance oil pipeline: 102.87 miles. The line included 6-inch, 18.5 pounds per linear foot wrought iron pipe joints, ordered from the Reading Iron Company, which began shipments on January 30, 1879, and the National Tube Works, which followed on February 12. Railroads delivered construction materials to 10 shipping points along the route. Laying of the pipe began near Oleona on February 22 and the last joints were put in place on May 22. The line rose 1,200 feet to cross the Allegheny Mountains near Waterville, then descended by gravity 2,100 feet. The cost of laying the line was 15.449 cents per foot, including freight (5.227), hauling (6.4) and joining (3.822). Through May 28, 1880, a total of 1,097,761.06 barrels (3,008 per day) was moved, of which 943,483.02 were transported to eastern refineries.

The pipeline could move 6,000 barrels per day. Starting at Pumping Station No. 1 at Coryville, oil flowed 22.43 miles to No. 2 station at Olmsted near Coudersport, then 80.44 miles to Williamsport. The pumping engines at Coryville began operation at 4 p.m. on May 28; oil arrived at 10:18 a.m. on May 30 at No. 2 station, which began to pump the same day at 3:20 p.m. After a pressure drop was detected, a piece of wood and some rope were removed from the pipe. Olmsted resumed pumping at 5 p.m. on June 2. Oil arrived at the tank farm 1.5 miles east of Williamsport at 7:20 p.m. on June 4. From there the loading station of the railroad could be reached by 12,700 feet of 8-inch gravity-flow pipe.

In 1880, the Equitable Pipe Line was absorbed, the Coryville pumping station was moved a few miles to Rixford and the 4-inch pipe was replaced by 6-inch pipe. The line was extended from Williamsport to Tamanend in the winter of 1881-82 and new pumping stations were built at County Line (No. 3 halfway between Olmsted and Williamsport), Muncy (No. 4 just southeast of Williamsport) and Shumans (No. 5). From Tamanend the New Jersey Central Railroad provided a direct route to New York bypassing Philadelphia in rail shipments. In 1887 the line was extended from Tamanend to Bayonne and pumping stations built at Hudsondale, Pa. (No. 6) and Changewater, New Jersey (No. 7).

The company owned a refinery in Bayonne, New Jersey, next to the larger refinery of the Standard Oil Company. On July 20, 1887, a fire that destroyed the Standard Oil Co. refinery at Constable Hook, also destroyed facilities belonging to the Tide Water Pipe Co., the Polar Oil Co., and the Ocean Oil Co.

In 1908 and 1909, the line was extended westward 546 miles from Rixford to Stoy, Illinois. The joints, made of basic steel, were laid from August 1, 1908, to April 13, 1909. Telegraph poles were erected from August 3, 1908, to April 10, 1909. On May 11, 1909, testing of the line with water began. The first oil arrived at Rixford at 7:15 a.m. on July 7, 1909. Seven pumping stations were later added. Pipeline loops were later added to the eastern portion of the line, which at the beginning of 1913 could move more than 10,000 barrels per day.

Tide Water Oil Company

The Tide Water Oil Company was incorporated in New Jersey on November 17, 1888.

In July 1916, 26,660 shares were offered to the public at $185 per share.

In June 1917, when the company was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange, its main pipeline had grown to include 833.69 miles of 6-inch trunk line from Stoy to Bayonne. Its pipeline system also included 304 miles of 6-inch trunk line loops; 2,000 miles of gathering lines; 20 pumping stations with redundant pump engines; and 92 tanks with a total capacity of 2,672,900 barrels. On one day that year, company pipelines held 1.6 million barrels of oil worth a total of $3,400,000.

The company held all or controlling interest in nine subsidiaries, including:

In May 1925, the common stock was split 4-for-1. Authorized capital was increased from 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 shares and each outstanding $100 par share was exchanged for 4 new shares of no par value.

In August 1925, the company issued $25,221,500 of 5% cumulative (par $100) convertible preferred stock to provide working capital, finance infrastructure, and retire its entire funded debt of $12,000,000. The preferred was called on August 15, 1935 at $105 and the final $1.25 quarterly dividend, using ca. $1,800,000 from the cash reserve and a $19,000,000 3.23% 5-year bank loan dated Aug 15, 1935. Apparently ⁠$20,800,000/$106.25⁠ or 195,765 shares were called and some 56,450 were converted, but a few seem to also have been bought on the market just prior to the call.

Tide Water Associated Oil Company

In 1926, control of Tide Water Oil was sold to a new holding company, Tide Water Associated Oil Company, which also acquired a controlling interest in California's Associated Oil Company. Soon thereafter, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey took control of the company. Flying A became the primary brand name for the company, though the Tydol and Associated names were also retained in their respective marketing areas.

The Tide Water Associated Oil Company (incorporated in Delaware on March 6, 1926) offered for each share of Associated Oil stock (of which 2,290,412 shares were outstanding) 1 share of no-par common and 1⁄3 share of 6% par $100 cumulative preferred. An alternative offer by a syndicate formed by Blair & Co. and Chase Securities Corp. offered $58.50 per share of Associated Oil Company. For each share of no-par stock of Tide Water Oil, 1+1⁄3 share of TWAO was offered. The preferred stock of Tide Water Oil remained unchanged. The Blair/Chase syndicate concurrently offered a block of the 6% convertible preferred of TWAO ("the new $240,000,000 dollar company") to the public. The Justice Department concluded an anti-trust investigation on April 22, 1926, declaring the consolidation legal.

On May 31, 1930, Tide Water Oil sold the subsidiary Tide Water Oil Export Corp to the Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of Indiana.

Getty representative H. Paul Grimm (president of Pacific Western Oil Corporation) was elected director on May 3, 1934, succeeding Henry S. Sturgis.

After a board resolution on Sep 17, 1936, TWAO bought the stock of the Terrabella Investment Co (California) for 230,000 new TWAO shares, which brought the total common stock registered with the NYSE to 8,751,985 shares.

In August 1936 TWO (New Jersey) spun off all operations into the new wholly owned subsidiary TWO (Delaware) and on November 30, 1936, Tide Water Oil and Associated Oil were merged into the Tide Water Associated Oil Company, which then held 99.13% of TWO and 98.21% of AO stock. The no-par common stock was exchanged for $10 par common to reduce tax payments. Each residual TWO share not already in the TWAO treasury received 3 shares of TWAO stock; each AO share received 2+1⁄4, causing the issue of 149,698 new TWAO shares. The merger was likely among the many executed in response to the Revenue Act of 1936.

Tidewater Oil Company operated a fleet of oil tankers. During World War II, it chartered ships to the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration and operated T2 tankers to support the war effort. Ships included: USS Guyandot (AOG-16), SS Byron D. Benson, SS Samuel Q. Brown, Falls of Clyde, and others.

During the 1950s, the Associated and Tydol brands gradually fell into disuse, and were dropped entirely in 1956.

Mission Corp

Mission Corp was incorporated at the end of 1934 as a holding company as a means of Standard Oil of New Jersey to distribute its holding of TWAO stock. It had an authorized capital of 1,500,000 shares of which 1,050,000 were initially issued and on March 15, 1935 a stock dividend of 1⁄25 shares of Mission Corp was paid per share to holders of par $25 Jersey common stock. Mission Corp owned only a small amount of working cash and 1,128,123 shares of TWAO common stock. Directors were: Edward Shea, Robert McKelvy (both of TWAO) and Herbert Rawl, Lyman Rhoades and John P. Davis.

Tidewater Oil Company

On May 4, 1956, the name of the company was changed to Tidewater Oil Company; distribution continued under the Flying A and Veedol brand names.

In 1966, Phillips Petroleum Company (now ConocoPhillips) purchased Tidewater's western refining, distribution and retailing network. Phillips immediately rebranded all Flying A stations in the region to Phillips 66. On the East Coast that year, American-born British petrol-industrialist J. Paul Getty merged his oil interests into Getty Oil Company, and Tidewater Oil was dropped as a corporate brand. The Flying A brand continued to be used on the East Coast until 1970, when stations and products were renamed Getty.

In 2000, BP acquired the Veedol brand when it bought Burmah-Castrol. In February 2011, BP offered to sell the Veedol brand, which was purchased that October by Tide Water India, part of the Andrew Yule and Company Indian subsidiary.

At the end of 1947 the company owned 15 ships (207.500 tons). These were in the Eastern Division:

• the 6 T-2 tankers
• Axtell J. Byles
• Edward L. Shea
• Mericos H. Whittier

and in the Western Division:

• Associated
• Frank G. Drum
• Solana
• Paul Shoup
• Tide Water
• Tide Water Associated

Trade routes

Veracruz - New York

Veracruz - the state, not the city.

All 4 tankers completed in 1921 had their commercial maiden voyage on the route and it was the only active trade route of the company until the fall of 1922. The round trip time was between 2 and 3 weeks, all 4 tankers had a speed of 10.5 knots. The distance is 2,029 nautical miles. Mexico was the second largest oil producer behind the United States from 1918 until 1926 and TWO was naturally not the only company to bring oil from Mexico to New York City, nor should it be assumed that all shipments on behalf of TWO were exclusively with their own tankers. Two deliveries to Boston are included in the summary, because the data is not totally consistent anyway.

California - New York

Round trip time was 5 to 6 weeks. The tankers brought only ballast water to Los Angeles.