Ghawar Field, Texaco, EPA's Authority and Before Green Hydrogen

Today in Energy History for Wednesday June 19, 2025

Jun 19, 2025

It’s June 19, energy investors, oil patch veterans, and market watchers — and today, we drill into the bedrock of history to unearth key moments that shaped the oil and gas industry—from Saudi gushers to regulatory crosswinds and corporate shakeups that still echo in today’s commodity charts.

Let’s fire up the wayback machine to June 19, 1953, when Standard Oil of New Jersey—now part of the ExxonMobil empire—announced a blockbuster discovery in Saudi Arabia: the Ghawar Field. This was no ordinary find. Ghawar would go on to become the largest conventional oil field in the world, stretching 160 miles in length and responsible for over 60 billion barrels of oil to date. This moment cemented Saudi Arabia’s place in the global oil hierarchy and gave the U.S. a front-row seat to the Middle East’s resource-rich future. For context: at full tilt, Ghawar alone could outproduce many entire OPEC nations.

Fast-forward to 1970—well, technically a year prior—but the data arrived on June 19 via the U.S. Bureau of Mines confirming that American oil production had peaked in 1969. While no sirens went off that day, the implications were profound. It marked the beginning of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, sparking what would become the 1973 oil crisis and reshaping national energy policy for decades. That “peak oil” theory? It became boardroom gospel and cocktail party fear-mongering for a generation.

Now to June 19, 1981, a pivotal moment in offshore policy. The U.S. Department of the Interior that day quietly issued expanded leasing blocks in the Gulf of Mexico, sparking renewed interest in deepwater drilling. It set the stage for the billion-barrel finds in the Lower Tertiary trend and foreshadowed the modern ultra-deepwater boom. The offshore frontier, once deemed too costly and risky, was about to become Big Oil’s high-stakes playground.

Then came June 19, 1995, when Texaco made headlines for restructuring its upstream division, divesting aging onshore assets in the U.S. while pivoting toward international plays. The move was part of a growing trend at the time—American majors shifting capital overseas in pursuit of bigger barrels and better margins. That strategy eventually opened the door for independent shale producers to reclaim those legacy assets and kick off the fracking renaissance just over a decade later.

And speaking of regulatory tremors, June 19, 2014, was a tough day in the boardrooms of coal and oil alike. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions from stationary sources—namely, power plants. While not targeting oil directly, it sent a signal through the industry: carbon had officially entered the cost ledger. Midstream and downstream players, especially refiners, started recalculating compliance costs—and investors took note.

Meanwhile, in 2003, June 19 saw a joint announcement by the Department of Energy and several oil majors outlining early investments in natural gas hydrogen reforming, long before “green hydrogen” became a buzzword. The goal? Leverage America’s abundant gas supply to produce low-cost hydrogen. While the spotlight has since shifted to electrolysis and renewables, it was a foundational step in the hydrogen economy narrative—and a reminder that natural gas remains a quiet workhorse in clean energy debates.

And finally, let’s give a nod to the geopolitical chessboard. On this day in 1979, though not energy-specific, the Shah of Iran made a key appeal to the U.S. regarding political asylum—a move that would later ignite the Iranian hostage crisis. Why is that relevant here? Because in the background, oil traders were bracing for more Iranian supply disruptions, and WTI prices began to spike. It marked a critical phase of the second oil shock, reinforcing how swiftly geopolitics can rattle the supply chain.

So whether we’re talking about the deserts of Ghawar, the ultra-deep rigs of the Gulf, or the legal chambers of Washington D.C., June 19 has repeatedly been a turning point—technically, geopolitically, and economically—for oil and gas.

That’s the wrap from the roughneck annals of time, bringing you today’s market context with a side of crude history—because in this industry, what happened yesterday still drives the price of tomorrow.

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