America’s first commercial oil refinery was put in operation this month in 1860. It was built in Titusville, Pennsylvania, on the banks of Oil Creek. That town was the site of the country’s first productive oil well in 1859, and these developments made the area some 100 miles north of Pittsburgh the cradle of America’s oil industry. The first refinery was focused on extracting kerosene from the crude oil. Any gasoline by-product was dumped into the creek.
There are 139 oil refineries operating in the country today. Four of them are in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, there are more than 8,200 oil and gas extraction establishments across the country, with annual revenues of around a third of a trillion dollars.
Source: America’s Economy – US Census Bureau
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