Economic Research: Halliburton Oklahoma

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Halliburton Oklahoma

Erle Palmer Halliburton (September 22, 1892, near Henning, Tennessee - October 13, 1957, in Los Angeles) was an American businessman specializing in the oil business.

Prior to the United States's entry into World War I, Halliburton gained exposure to shipboard engineering as a member of the United States Navy. After his honorable discharge in 1915, he headed for the oilfields of California, where he was able to apply techniques analogous to the technology with which he had worked in the Navy. His drive and his sense of innovation soon brought him into conflict with his boss, Almond Perkins. Halliburton later quipped that getting hired and getting fired by the Perkins Oil Well Cementing Company were the two best opportunities he had ever received.[1]

Halliburton and his wife, Vida C Tabor Halliburton, then moved to Duncan, Oklahoma where Halliburton invented, perfected, and patented a new method of oil well cementing. According to one of the inscriptions on the pictured monument, Halliburton's method "isolates the various downhole zones, guards against collapse of the casing and permits control of the well during its producing life." In 1919, based on this new method, Halliburton started Duncan's New Method Oil Well Cementing Company. By 1922, the company was operating as the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company. On July 5, 1961, it became known as the Halliburton Company.

Halliburton also designed the aluminum suitcases which are now manufactured by Zero Halliburton.