1961: Family business in the news...

 New SHELL STATION Beautifies Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

A bright breeze-swept on a tall standard announces the recently opened modern SHELL station operated by Mr. Hugues Abdallah on Avenue Jean-Jacques Dessalines, near the Portail Leogane.

Entrance to the washing and greasing section is spacious and the last word in equipment, cleanliness and services has gone into this area. All the walls are completely tiled and the bright red and yellow SHELL colors make the station a highlight of the Boulevard.

Over in the left hand corner of the station stands a kiosk where all the family needs by way of home fueling may be purchased. There is a SHELL Kerosene Soleil pump right in front of the neat little building to accommodate large purchasers.

Four regular gasoline pumps, two diesel, and one kerosene pump are lined up on an island towards the front of the station, making gas purchases easy swift for motorists. SHELL's new station has set a firm guarantee of swift service and courtesy to all customers and the garage is equipped to handle all makes of cars and trucks.

Spare parts are on hand in a well-stocked showroom as are all the SHELL lines of greases and oils etc. Congratulations to the new service station which is truly an embellishment to Jean-Jacques Dessalines Boulevard.

Source: Entire article by Haiti Sun

The picture above shows a receipt dated October 21, 1962 from the Shell Station. A certain Willy whose car tag was #695 purchased 5 gallons of fuel. (Father kept the receipt for a reason) Willy could be father's friend who helped Henri Abdallah survive when he went into hiding from the Duvalier regime. (Read the story in Mèt Estòy)

Where did these petroleum companies come from ?...

In Haiti, there were three prominent oil and gas companies: Texaco, Shell and ESSO.

From Wikipedia.

Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American oil brand of the Chevron Corporation.[5] Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an independent company until its refining operations merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to the Shell Oil Company.

ESSO

Standard Oil of New Jersey started marketing its products under the Esso brand[3] in 1926.[4] In 1972, the name Esso was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon brand after the Standard Oil of New Jersey bought Humble Oil, while the Esso name remained widely used elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso brand and the Mobil brand are the primary brand names of ExxonMobil, with the Exxon brand name in use only in the United States alongside Mobil.