The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

OIL AND GAS JOURNAL.

The Oil and Gas Journal began its existence at Beaumont, Texas, on May 24, 1902, under the title of the Oil Investors Journal. Its publisher, Holland S. Reavis of St. Louis, Missouri, founded the publication to report on petroleum activity in the Texas Gulf Coast region, but he soon expanded the geographical coverage as oil discoveries proliferated across the Southwest. In 1910 Reavis sold the journal to the Petroleum Publishing Company, owned by Patrick C. Boyle of Pennsylvania, who was a noted publisher of oil-related news in that region. Boyle immediately changed the name to Oil and Gas Journal, increased the publication frequency from bimonthly to weekly, and moved the operation to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Oil and Gas Journal has remained in Tulsa since that time, and it has become one of the most respected sources of reliable news related to the petroleum industry. Originally the publication focused on field reports, economic analysis, and statistics on the various aspects of the industry, but over time it devoted more and more space to technological and scientific advances in all aspects of the industry from exploration through refining. It also expanded its geographical coverage to the international level to keep pace with the growing and changing aspects of the industry. After Boyle's death in 1920, three generations of the Lauinger family presided over the publication. At the turn of the twenty-first century Joseph A. Wolking served as president.

Bobby D. Weaver