Leon Hess built his business by repurposing refineries' discarded residual oil
David Senra · The Last Oil Baron: Leon Hess · Feb 26, 2025 · at 11:43
David Senra analyzes the founding strategy of Leon Hess, founder of Hess Corporation, during the 1930s.
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“So Leon realizes that he could sell what was called number six fuel oil. It's called residual oil. It's called black oil. Essentially. It's this heavy, almost like molasses thick Oil that other refiners are just throwing away. So Leon's plan to say, I'm going to take this seven year old secondhand use truck, right? It's it holds 615 gallons of oil. I'm going to go collect this fuel that you're throwing away anyway. So he gets a good deal on it from area refineries in New Jersey and then repurpose it as a cleaner alternative to coal.”
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