ExxonMobil the Exxon Building (1251 Avenue of the Americas), its former headquarters in Rockefeller Center, to a unit of Mitsui Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. in 1986 for $610 million, and in 1989, moved its headquarters from Manhattan, New York City to the Las Colinas area of Irving, Texas. John Walsh, president of Exxon subsidiary Friendswood Development Company, stated that Exxon left New York because the costs were too high. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska and spilled more than of crude oil. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the
History of the oil tanker engines, as opposed to the older steam engines. The "Vandal", the first diesel-electric ship, was capable of carrying 750 long tons of refined oil was powered by three diesel motors. The larger "Sarmat" employed four 180 h.p. engines. The first seagoing diesel-powered tanker, 4,500 ton "Mysl", was built by Nobel's competitors in Kolomna. Nobel responded with "Emanuel Nobel" and "Karl Hagelin", 4,600 long ton kerosene tankers with engines. The 475 ft., 7-masted schooner "Thomas W. Lawson", built in 1902, was the largest purely sail tanker ever built. It carried coal, and oil in barrels from Texas to the East Coast