The Buckeye Pipe Line Company was incorporated in March of 1886 in Pennsylvania as a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company. Buckeye became an independent publicly owned company after Standard Oil’s dissolution in 1911.
The Buckeye Pipe Line Company originally was established to supply refineries in northwestern Ohio with crude oil gathered from local production sources. During the 1930s and 1940s, the company expanded its crude oil operations and constructed a network of trunk lines that supplied refineries from Chicago to Buffalo. As local production declined and was replaced by crude supply from the Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast regions, Buckeye’s pipelines continued to function as key supply lines for refineries in its service territory.
Buckeye began its first refined products pipeline operations in the mid 1940s. The company built new products lines in Ohio and Indiana and converted older idle crude lines to refined products service to meet emerging needs for supplying gasoline and distillates to local consumption markets.
During the 1950s, Buckeye extended its Midwest products network and concurrently constructed a new products pipeline system in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.
In 1964, Buckeye was acquired by a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which later became The Penn Central Corporation.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the company built the first products pipeline through the streets of New York City in order to serve the three major airports and commercial customers in that metropolitan region. In 1977, the company acquired Jet Lines, Inc., a products pipeline system in New England.
In December 1986, the company was reorganized as Buckeye Partners LP.
