WI: creating a CA oil company 1894 / How Ruthless was Standard Oil?

In one of my ongoing timeline projects, I am working on taking a certain 1850's businessman and turning him into the richest and largest business owner in California.

Part of this grand plan involves the purchase and 'accidental' discovery of the Midway Sunset Oil Fields in 1892 by his son.

The problem I have is that while there is plenty of information about the size of the fields, when they were discovered, PSI mineralogical surveys, etc; there is not much information about WHO drilled the oil during the early years. one would think a company as large as standard oil would be mentioned if they had bought up the place, or is it just assumed that any oil form 1890 to 1911 was owned by Standard Oil?

Obviously the reason I ask is because, as mentioned, my secret plan is to have this business man "on a hunch" buys up large amounts of the whole area long before anyone discovers oil. The hope is in 1892, two years before oil was discovered in the OTL, his son discovers it, starts pumping and becomes immensely stupidly rich.

This then circles back to the question of how ruthless Standard Oil was? If they find out someone, even a financially powerful someone, is pumping vast amounts of oil out in California, are they going to send some "Muscle" out to take things over? Buy him out?

Or...Is it just possible to run a small operation till they break up in 1911,and then go nuts and expand pumping?
 
A very canny, well-connected and politically astute businessman could probably survive after 1890 (Sherman Act), but he would have to have some muscle behind him to develop the means to transport and market oil and survive inevitable assault from Standard. After 1911 there's no reason why it couldn't take off. You'd probably need an alliance with something powerful.

Standard Oil of CA is huge, and one oil field in SoCal is not enough to compete - but it sounds like you'll have already established this guy as a powerful tycoon, so maybe it's workable. Hopefully there's rail & shipping in the business empire.
 
Hmm not much. Mostly has his finances built on department stores and buying and selling land. By 1870 the department store side of things would have been substantial enough that he would have distribution, but not actually owning railroads.

Getting into oil "Seems" like the perfect ultimate money maker. But the initial cost and effort needed to establish oil pumps, oil processing, and oil distribution is enormous.

And you ,unfortunately, confirmed one of my suspicions, that trying to start it up before 1911 would be rather difficult. That means buying up the midway fields and trying to sit on them till 1911 while Standard oil drills all around them. That may be hard as well.

Of course a third option is to buy up the hand and perhaps make some sort of partnership with Standard Oil, and then pull out when the company is broken up. But that goes back to how ruthless they are.
 
Thinking about ways ot hold the land without drawing suspicion... Anyone know what the land was like back in 1880s?

My newest idea is to purchase huge amounts under pretense of starting a Cattle Ranch. Cattle was a legitimate business in california and you DO need huge amounts of acreage for a ranch.

Unfortunately the area is, well covered in oil wells today, and no good photos of the place before it was discovered in 1894.
 
You mean ruthless towards its competition? They crushed them, but I think more from the sheer bulk Standard produced in kerosine and other petrochemical products. They drove the prices down so low that other companies were forced under. Low prices were good for the consumer, but there was always the danger that once a true monopoly, Standard Oil (or any monopoly for that matter) might get greedy and jack up the prices.
 
You mean ruthless towards its competition? They crushed them, but I think more from the sheer bulk Standard produced in kerosine and other petrochemical products. They drove the prices down so low that other companies were forced under. Low prices were good for the consumer, but there was always the danger that once a true monopoly, Standard Oil (or any monopoly for that matter) might get greedy and jack up the prices.
They also got preferential treatment on transport rates.
 
Any other theories on how they would react?

Or the plausibility of running a cattle ranch of the oilfield land to keep them from drilling?
 
I don't know much about the oil business but I have watched "There Will Be Blood". :D:D

One thing about the Oil business is that it was an extremely high tech business during that time. I am not sure if a total outsider to the field could understand drill technology, geology, as well as safe transportation during that time wasn't common knowledge. Standard Oil has the money, know how, and infrastructure to pump more oil from the same ground that your protagonist could. So really if Standard Oil absolutely had to make a deal, there is really no reason for a total outsider with less resources to try to build oil wells from the ground up.
 
You mean ruthless towards its competition? They crushed them, but I think more from the sheer bulk Standard produced in kerosine and other petrochemical products. They drove the prices down so low that other companies were forced under. Low prices were good for the consumer, but there was always the danger that once a true monopoly, Standard Oil (or any monopoly for that matter) might get greedy and jack up the prices.

I believe that in many instances companies were formed with the express purpose of being driven under and then being bought out by Standard Oil. It should also be recognized that most companies that SO drove under were worse run than SO. Standard strove to produce a better product and make it cheaper, so it was better run and more efficent than its rivals.
 
Just a heads up on all this I talked to a friend of mine who works in that area of California, and according to him, buying up the land as a Cattle Ranch would work quite well since evidently around the 1880s the are was large flat and covered in scrub brush and grasses.

That would buy time till at least the late 1890's. Another option that I was recently informed about, is once Standard Oil Does start drilling in the area, I could "lease" them the l and, they would drill on it, and I would own it. When the place breaks up in 1910, It wouldn't be too hard to just buy that area up, especially if drilling is kept small and no one realizes just how massive the oil field is :evilsmile:
 
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