Cseh Valentin szerk.: „70 éve alakult a MAORT” – tanulmányok egy bányavállalat történetéből (2009)

Philip J. Mulhall: Standard Oil in Europe

devolved 33 of its constituent companies, including the Standard Oil Company of New York and Vacuum Oil Company, which eventually came together to form Mobil. Thirty two companies remained with Standard of New Jersey, which later merged with the AngloAmerican Oil Company, and went on to become Exxon, or Esso as it is known outside of the IS. Both Exxon and Mobil followed similar paths, expanding around the world and into every segment of the oil business, including petrochemicals, as they met the world's energy needs. Ultimately, Exxon and Mobil realised they could operate more effectively in the 21st century as one company, and at the end of 1999 the two companies merged. Standard of New Jersey's European activities included discovery of oil in Hungary. It would appear that interest was first attracted to the Budafapuszta area by its geographical position on the eastward projection of a known surface anticline, which had produced small quantities of oil at Peklenicza and Szelnicza. However, a test was completed in 1923 as a dry hole. ExxonMobil historical records show that, despite Hungarian government scientists claiming that oil did not exist in worth-while amounts, Standard Jersey established EUROGASCO in order to negotiate concessions to explore for oil and gas. The negotiations commenced in 1931, and exploration activities followed in 1934. Oil was discovered in 1937, with MAORT (Hungarian American ( )il Co., a subsidiary of EUROGASCO) established one year later in 1938 to market the production of the Lipse field. Standard Oil owned the majorit}' of MAORT's shares. Company records also show that between 1937 and 1941, they were able to produce 6.6 million barrels of oil. Earlier exploration efforts in the Hungarian region had not met with significant success; however it should be noted that in the late part of the 19th century and the early 20th century shafts up to 600 meters deep had been dug in the vicinity of natural oil occurrences. A government act in 1911 declared exploration and exploitation of oil and gas to be a state monopoly, but one which could be ceded to foreign exploration companies. Consequentially the Hungária Carpathia Petroleum Company obtained a concession for the Izavölgy area, and subsequently exploited a find near Egbell in 1913. With most of Continental Europe under the domination of Germany and its allies ciuring World War 11, control of important marketing affiliates, and many smaller concerns in Europe and North Africa, were lost. Nearly 1,000 bombs struck the Teleajen refinery in Romania - no unit remained intact. Gravenchon and Port Gerome refineries in France were destroyed, and the German air force bombed Rotterdam, destroying almost all of Standard's installations there. In addition, such valuable producing companies as the old Romano-Americana in Romania, and the young but growing MAORT in Hungary came under German control. (The running of MAORT was taken over by the Hungarian government in 1941, when the United States entered the war.) No contact existed between Standard Jersey and EUROGASCO and MAORT during the war period. The government eventually took control of MAORT in September 1948, and nationalized MAORT at the end of 1949. In the same year, the Romanian government also nationalized the properties and operations of Romano-Americana. In the years between the end of World War 11 and now, Standard's achievements followed in quick succession. Some of the highlights the company is particularly proud of include: 1949: the building of a new refinery at Fawley in the UK. Designed to help meet the huge demand for petroleum products after the war, it is still the largest refinery in the UK today. 1959: the huge Groningen gas discovery in The Netherlands. The largest gas field in Europe at over