Introduction

Abstract

The oil industry is usually said to date from 1859, when a Colonel Drake drilled an oil well in Pennsylvania. There was, however, a long pre-history. Asphaltic bitumen was used extensively in ancient Mesopotamia, and in subsequent centuries petroleum was collected from seepages, or shallow pits, and used for both medicinal and industrial purposes. Marco Polo visited Baku in 1272 and reported that the inhabitants collected oil. Natural oils, such as olive, whale and fish oils, were used as lubricants and lamp oils. A shortage of these oils in the nineteenth century prompted experiments with the production of oil from shale. James Young in Scotland was a pioneer in this field. The demand for oils increased rapidly with the development of new and cheap lamps, which became readily available in Britain in the 1850s. Colonel Drake, by demonstrating that it was possible to drill through impervious rock to obtain natural petroleum, revolutionised the industry.