Portrait of John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller

A Standard Oil Company horse-drawn tank wagon with its driver

The Legacy
of Standard Oil

From one empire to today’s energy giants.

The Standard Oil Building, a stone skyscraper with a stepped tower

Standard Oil Building

How one company reshaped
American business

By the late 19th century, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company dominated the U.S. oil industry. Its enormous scale helped reduce costs and made distribution more efficient—but it also raised a question the country was only beginning to confront: How much economic power should one company be allowed to have?

Ida Tarbell seated at a desk, writing

Ida Tarbell

Ida Tarbell takes on Standard Oil

In 1904, muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell published The History of the Standard Oil Company, a detailed account of Rockefeller’s rise and the tactics Standard Oil used to dominate the industry. Her reporting helped turn the company into a national symbol of monopoly power and added momentum to the growing antitrust movement.

Portrait of Senator John Sherman

Senator John Sherman

The antitrust fight reaches
the Supreme Court

Congress had passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, giving the federal government a tool to challenge monopolistic business practices. In 1906, the government sued Standard Oil. Five years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the company had violated the law and ordered it dissolved.

Esso logo Chevron logo BP logo

The breakup

In 1911, Standard Oil was divided into 34 independent companies. Some disappeared. Others merged, changed names, or combined with former rivals. A handful of those lines can still be traced to major energy companies today—including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, and Shell.

ExxonMobilChevronBPConocoPhillipsShell Socony- Vacuum MERGER 1931 NEW BRAND 1926 Mobil RENAMED 1966 Exxon RENAMED 1972 MERGER 1999 STANDARD OIL OF New Jersey STANDARD OIL OF New York Vacuum
ExxonMobilChevronBPConocoPhillipsShell STANDARD OIL OF Kentucky 1961 STANDARD OIL OF California RENAMED 1984 Texaco RENAMED 2005 Chevron ChevronTexaco MERGER 2001
ExxonMobilChevronBPConocoPhillipsShell 2000 RENAMED 2001 1987 BP MERGER 1998 BP Amoco RENAMED 1985 Amoco MERGER 1966 ARCO Richfield Oil Corporation Atlantic Refining STANDARD OIL OF Indiana STANDARD OIL OF Ohio/Sohio BP
ExxonMobilChevronBPConocoPhillipsShell Continental Oil Phillips Petroleum 2024 Conoco RENAMED 1979 MERGER 2002 Marathon Oil RENAMED 1962 Ohio Oil SPIN-OFF 2012 SPIN-OFF 2011 Marathon Petroleum
ExxonMobilChevronBPConocoPhillipsShell 2002 South Penn Oil Zapata Petroleum Stetco Petroleum Pennzoil- Quaker State MERGER 1998 Quaker State Pennzoil MERGER 1963 Shell

CREDITS

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., © Stock Ninja Studio, wolterke, Vhagar, tanibond/stock.adobe.com, © Bettmann/Getty Images, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Brady-Handy photograph collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-cwpbh-04451)

Photo illustrations © Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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