7.1 Introduction

• Defintion: The word petroleum comes from the Greek  for “rock oil” or “crude oil”.  In Japan in the 7th century it was known as “burning water”.

• The word gasolene was first used in 1865 and the shortened form, “gas” in about 1905. The word "petrol" was first used to descibe the refined product in the early 1890s.

• Where Found: It is found in formations of porous rock located in some parts of the upper strata of the earth’s crust. It can also be found mixed with sand and shale.

• Hydrocarbon: Petroleum consists of a complex mixture of hydrogen and carbon molecules in varying ratios or “fractions”. Refining is the separation of these “fractions” into useful products.

• Refining: The lighter fractions (heaviest first) produce heating oils, diesel fuel, kerosene/paraffin, petrol, and the volatile petroleum, butane and propane gases. The densest fractions produce tar and asphalt.

• Current Use: 84% of petroleum is used to produce fuel oil and petrol/gasoline. The remaining 16% is used mainly in the production of fertilisers, plastics, solvents and pesticides.

7.2 Ancient History

• 3500 BC: Asphalt was used in what is now Iraq as a sealant for boats and from 2200 BC by the Babylonians during the construction of tunnels, walls, towers, roads and the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

• In the 8th century the streets of Baghdad were paved with tar.

• China: Oil was first used in China in about 200 BC. Using bamboo poles with brass attachments, wells as deep as 3,500 feet were achieved.

• Lighting: The most common use for petroleum oil was to provide lighting and heating. Oil lamps were used in the 13th century in Baku, Russia. In about the 10th century in Cairo, Egypt, torches were lit with oil.

• Pipe Lines: There are reports that bamboo poles were used to connect oil wells to salt springs in China in the 10th century. The oil being burned to evaporate brine and produce salt.

7.3 Kerosene

• In 1830 Baron Karl von Reichenbach (German) discovered a substance he called paraffin (later also known as kerosene).

• In about 1846 Abraham Pineo Gesner (Canadian) produced what he called kerosene from asphalt. He derived the word from the Greek “keros” (wax) and “ela ion” (oil). The word kerosene was patented in 1853.

• In Scotland in 1850 James Young was granted a patent for producing paraffin from oil-bearing shale. Two years later, in 1852, Ignacy Lukasiein (Polish) discovered how to refine kerosene from petroleum.

• Kerosene was the a basis of the oil industry for about 30 years and by the end of the 19th century it was the main source of artificial light in the world.

• The invention of the electric light bulb in 1879 and the motorcar in 1886 marked the start of its decline.

7.4 Oil Fields

• In 1848 F N Semyonov (Russian) drilled the first modern oil well northeast of Baku, with Russia’s first refinery constructed in Buku in 1861. Shortly afterwards Baku produced nearly 90% of the world's oil.

• In Ontario, Canada, James Williams sank the first commercial oil well in 1858 and the following year, in 1859, Edwin Drake drilled a 69 foot oil well in Pennsylvania. Later on oil was discovered in Texas, Calafornia and Oklahoma.

• The world's largest reserves (2007) are found in Saudi Arabia, where oil was first discovered in 1937 at a depth of 4,727 feet.

7.5 Oil Production

• Crude petroleum production in the United States increased from 2,000 barrels a day in 1859 to over 126,000 in 1906. Note: A barrel consists of 42 US gallons.

• Daily production was 284,000 barrels in 1895, 7.1 million in 1945 and about 60 million in 1990.

7.6 Oil Tankers

• A small sailing brig was used to transport the first cargo of kerosene from the United States in 1861.

• The British built SS Gluckauf was the first ocean-going tanker. It was built for Standard Oil to carry kerosene and was launched in 1886.      .

7.7 General Information

• In 1870 John D. Rockefeller (American) established the Standard Oil Company. By the end of the 1870s it controlled 90% of US oil refining.

• In Russia in 1885 a company owned by Robert and Ludwig Nobel (another brother, Alfred, founded the Nobel prizes) refined 50% of Russia's kerosene.