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History of Oil: The Birth of the Modern Oil Industry (1859–1939)

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Encyclopedia of Petroleum Geoscience

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definitions

The modern oil industry began in the mid-nineteenth century, notably in Pennsylvania, Baku, Eastern Europe (Romania and Poland), and Burma (Myanmar). Oil rapidly became a commercial commodity first for heating and then, beginning in the 1900s, as fuel for automobiles, ships, and airplanes. Refining of crude oil for petrochemicals was another milestone in the expansion of oil. No other commodity like oil has defined the modern civilization since the late nineteenth century.

Introduction

This article traces the development of the modern oil industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The history is divided chronologically into: (1) The Drake discovery in Pennsylvania and American oil industry; (2) Mid-nineteenth century oil wells outside America; (3) growth of the oil industry in late nineteenth-to-early-twentieth centuries; (4) First World War; and (5) The 1920s to the 1930s. Several books have detailed the history of the modern petroleum industry (Clark 1963...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eni Natural Resources, Milan, Italy

    Jonathan Craig

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  1. Jonathan Craig
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Correspondence to Jonathan Craig .

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  1. Energy and Geoscience Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Rasoul Sorkhabi

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Craig, J. (2020). History of Oil: The Birth of the Modern Oil Industry (1859–1939). In: Sorkhabi, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Petroleum Geoscience. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02330-4_34-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02330-4_34-1

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