How it all started ... the story behind the first ever World Petroleum Congress

At the monthly Council meeting of the London-based Institution of Petroleum Technologists (nowadays the Energy Institute) in October 1932, the Chairman, Thomas Dewhurst, suggested holding a week-long international conference covering the whole field of petroleum technological activity, to be held in London, with leading international scientists invited to write papers and participate. The Council adopted this proposal with such enthusiasm that when the Institution’s journal was mailed out three days later, it carried with it, to the 50 countries in which it circulated, a questionnaire seeking support for such a conference. The result was overwhelming. At the November Council meeting, with the full backing of the British oil industry and the government, it was decided to hold a World Petroleum Congress in London in July 1933, only eight months away.

Thomas Dewhurst was appointed as President of the Congress, and James Kewley Chairman of the Organising Committee. George Sell, who was responsible for all the Institution’s technical meetings and publications became Joint Secretary of the Congress Invitations were sent all around the world and 244 papers were submitted, scrutinised, accepted and passed to George Sell for editing and publishing as pre-prints.

The framework of the technical sessions was not completed until the end of January 1933, so the invitations were not sent out until the middle of February. It is remarkable that George Sell, with some help from a part-time typist, edited those 244 papers, checked all their illustrations, photographs and diagrams, sent them complete to the printers, read and edited the pre-print proofs and finally despatched the finished pre-prints to more than 800 delegates – by the end of June!

The Congress was formally opened on 19 July 1933 with a Ceremony at the Science Museum in Kensington, led by the President, Thomas Dewhurst, with some 830 delegates from 35 countries present. The technical meeting room and the registration for the congress were held in the lecture theatres of the Royal School of Mines of the Imperial College, London. There were only 35 accompanying persons, so “no special ladies’ excursions were arranged; but they could join several of the social functions.

The technical meetings began on 20 July. There had been massive developments in the oil industry since the last scientific oil conference, held in 1907. In addition, the Congress had been set up by a distinguished scientific society and backed by the oil industry, so there was much enthusiasm and lively debate. The sessions lasted for two hours each morning and afternoon. According to one eye witness account, the discussion on one paper on viscosity was so fiercely contested, that after over-running by a further 2 hours, it was only brought to a conclusion by the janitor of the building threatening to turn the lights off!

The Congress included many papers on the geology of specific fields all over the world and the techniques used in exploration and development. The session chairmen considered each paper in the light of what could be learned from it; their detailed summaries provided valuable comparative judgements and indicated the way forward for the industry. Difficult challenges in the refining of motor fuels was one of the hot topics of the day including the development of special fuels for high speed compression engines (bringing maximum speed to about 80 mph / 130 km/h), recent developments in lubricating oil and viscosity, hydrogenation and measurement uses for bitumen. There was also a section on alternative fuels, which included papers on natural gas for the propulsion of heavy vehicles, power alcohol and petrol-methanol mixtures. Some presenters became historical figures themselves, such as Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger, founders of the eponymous service company, who presented their first scientific paper with Henri-Georges Doll on ‘The electromagnetic teleclinometer and dipmeter’.

Two special addresses were given on separate evenings in the Royal Institution. For these addresses, the lecturer and the entire audience were in formal evening dress. The first address was by Sir John Cadman on ‘Science in the Petroleum Industry’ and ranged from geophysics to the operation of an oilfield. The second was given by J. B. Aug Kessler on ‘The Rationalisation of the Oil Industry’. Although largely a review of the current marketing problems of petroleum and especially fuel oil, it launched a vigorous attack on the taxation of petroleum in general and the government of the day in particular. This well-reasoned attack was so effective, and the response of the British government was so negative, that the President noted that government policy and taxation were two topics to be kept off future WPC programmes at all costs. Taxation only returned to the agenda in the 1980s.

The final paper presentations and discussions on 25 July were followed by a Plenary Session of all the delegates, with Thomas Dewhurst again in the chair. The purpose of the meeting was to adopt resolutions that had been proposed by the various sessions. The first resolution was to the effect that all matters concerning international standardisation of methods of testing petroleum products should be put forward by national standardising bodies to the International Standardising Association’s (now International Standards Organisation) Committee 28, who should in future be the co-ordinating body in respect of all standardisation activities. After unanimous approval this resolution was carried into international effect and became the basis for the standardisation of the methods of testing petroleum products.

The second resolution was proposed by the Chair. Thomas Dewhurst proposed that a World Petroleum Congress should in future be held triennially, which was fully supported by all attendees. He laid out the principles of WPC by stating that the WPC should exist solely for the promotion and advancement of petroleum science and technology and the interchange not only of information and knowledge, but also of friendship between oil scientists of every country in the world, without political or racial barrier. 

Since then there have been 22 World Petroleum Congresses held all around the world, with the 23rd WPC due to go ahead in Houston, USA, in December 2021 – 88 years after the industry got together to hold the first world-wide meeting for the petroleum sector in July 1933.