History of Oil Fields

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.