Standard Oil Standard Oil Standard Oil Co. Inc. was an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refinery in the world of its time. Its history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the United States Supreme Court, in a landmark case, ruled that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly. Standard Oil dominated the oil products market initially through horizontal integration in the refining sector, then, in later years vertical integration; the company was
Standard Oil of Kentucky 1930, it acquired the assets of Reed Oil Corp. of Atlanta, Georgia. The Riverside Refinery, built by Kyso circa 1918 in West Louisville, Kentucky, is still the source of considerable study due to environmental concerns Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, started his first restaurant, the Sanders Court and Cafe, as part of a Standard Oil station in Corbin, Kentucky, in 1930. In 1961, it was acquired by Standard Oil of California, effectively pushing Esso out of the former Kyso territory. Esso began marketing itself across the region as the "official" Standard brand oil. In 1966, Chevron sued over