UOP LLC - History

History

UOP was founded in 1914 to exploit the market potential of patents held by inventors Jesse A. Dubbs and his son, Carbon Petroleum (C. P.) Dubbs. Perhaps because he was born in Pennsylvania oil country, Jesse Dubbs was enamored with the oil business. He even named his son Carbon after one of the elemental constituents of oil. Later, Carbon added the P. to make his name "euphonious," he said. People started calling him "Petroleum" for fun, and the name stuck. C. P.'s son and grandson were also named Carbon, but each had a different middle initial.

When founded in 1914 it was a privately held firm known as the National Hydrocarbon Company. J. Ogden Armour provided initial seed money and kept the firm going the first years it lost money. Most of the losses were incurred during lengthy legal battles with petroleum firms that were using technology patented by Dubbs.

In 1919 the firm's name became Universal Oil Products.

By 1931 Petroleum firms saw a possible competitive advantage to owning UOP. A consortium of firms banded together to purchase the firm. These firms were Shell Oil Company, Standard Oil Company of California, Standard Oil Company of Indiana, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, The Texas Company, and N. V. de Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. This worried oil firms that were not part of the group and it helped prompt the Justice Department to begin an investigation of this arrangement as a possible violation of antitrust laws.

The oil firms placed the assets of UOP into a trust to support the American Chemical Society. In 1959 UOP went public and the income from that sale still provides monies to the American Chemical Society to administer grants to universities worldwide.

In August 1988 Union Carbide Corporation and Allied Signal Inc. formed a joint venture combining UOP Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Signal and the Catalyst, Adsorbents and Process Systems (CAPS) business of Union Carbide.

In 2005, Honeywell took over 100% ownership when it bought the two halves owned by Union Carbide and Allied Signal. The reported payment to Union Carbide was $835 million which means the total acquisition cost was approximately $1.6 billion.