The oils seeps to the surface is what people in ancient times first discovered. It is usually found in the form of bitumen.
Around 3,000 BC ancient people Middle East traded bitumen to be used as building mortar, medicine, and lightning fuel.
Starting in 900 BC the Chinese began using natural gas from wells.
Eventually small oil industry began to develop in Eastern Europe around 1854 that focused primary on peasant dug shafts to obtain crude oil.
This oil was then refined to abstract kerosene, which was then used in cheaply manufactured lamps.
The perfection of the oil lamp, at the end of the XVIIIth century by the Chemist Quinquet, led, a few decades later to a sudden increase in demand for oil.
To increase the availability of oil, some American financiers had the idea of using the cable tool technique of drilling, developed from the production of salt from brine wells.
On the 27 August 1859, after several weeks drilling and at depth of 23 meters, Edwin Drake found that the bottom of the well had filled with oil.
Later in the United States, the standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870 as a refining company in Cleveland, dominated the industry for several decades. By 1880 it had a domestic market share in refining of 95 percent.
By that time, Standard Oil had also come to dominate the pipeline, shipping and drilling business.
In the advent of World War II the increasing popularity for automobiles, oil for heating and electric motors in industry made petroleum the dominant element of the American fuel economy.
As the consumption of energy skyrocketed in the post-World War II decades oil continued to grow in importance.
Beginning History of Oil Industry
