7/17/2019 History of Petroleum

1/2

In 1852 a canadian inventor named Abraham Pineo Gesner discovered how to make karosene from crude petroleumIt was used as an illuminant. It was a better illuminant and also cheaper than other sources.

You could light your house with karosene for ten dollars a year. Created over millions of years by heat and pressurepetroleum is formed when living things die and decay and are converted to carboncontaining minerals.

Ancient Oil:1. the bible records that noah applied petroleum into the arch as a water proofer.2. A thousand years before christ, the chinese were burning it in lamps.3. In 1100 AD christian crusaders found they could set petroleum ablaze to makefire which they used against their enemies in battle.

Early Amaricans gathered the black gold from pools that had reached the surface.By that time, the principal use of petroleum was medicine. it was thought to begood for arthritis.as long as petroleum was limited to be used for medicinal purposes, there was little reason for man to spend much time searching for it.A few 100 gallons more than the man demanded would be provided by the pools. But

the discovery of karosene changed all that. Within a year ofGesner'sdiscovery, his karosene works were producing 5000 gallons a day. And the need for more crude petroleum became critical.

By 1859, 34 startup companies were producing 5 million dollars worth of karosene oil annually. The rush to find oil and with it huge fortune was on.George bissel was one of the fortune hunters who found out that salt miners in the western pansilvannia were complaining that their digs were being contaminatedby oil.Hearing the news he hired edwin drake to determine if the region had any potential for profit.Drake had made the most important stike in oil history. Many drillers came to the region to produce oil during that time when oil was sold at a price of 20 doll

ar a barrel.

in January 1866 the well began to dry up. out was reduced from 6000 b/d to 3000b/d. A year after the wells dried completely.

Standard Oil marketing company by John davidson rockefeller 1866 was supplying oil to the transportation and became the largest OMC in 1870's because it owned also the refineries.so competitors would either sell oil to standard oil or go bankrupt.Rockefeller could be compared with 21 century;s billgates.By 1879 Standard oil controlled 90% of the oil refineries operations in US.

In late 1880s, Standard oil also started production and achieved a share of 25%

in us oil production.

Thomas eddison invented light bulb which was a serious blow to the oil industry.However, soon internal combustion was invented, which saved standard oil.

Discovery of Spindletop gusher on January 10, 1901.. In early 20th century, newpetroleum sources had to be found because of the increased use of internal combustion engines.In texas, the first gusher exploded on jan 10 1901. This event also the beggining of the end for standard oil's domination. It at that time was one fifth of th

7/17/2019 History of Petroleum

2/2

e world oil production.One of the company emerged as gulf oil.Another was taxas company, which in 1905 was renamed to taxaco gasoine and motoroil.By 1910 the taxas companies could stand at par with the once invincible standardoil.In 1911, jan 6 US supreme court that standard oil trust was in violation of lawswhich prohibited the restraint of trade.Standard oil had to be broken up. Mobil, exxon, chevron. these companies in theeast and those in texas were to compete fiercely in the years to come.

During both world wars, american domination was assured by the oil supply.At the end of world war two, american life changed. automobiles increased and consumption skyrocketed.Competition was more intense.

British petroleum, philips (oklahoma) were also making their presence felt in international market.by 1960 american consumtion had grown more than the us oil supply. as a result the nation had to rely on imports.13 oil producing companies in the milldle east and south america formed OPEC.in 1973 OPEC placed an oil embargo on the uS and other states that had supportedisrael.US dependence on arab oil imports had increased many fold during the later years

.In 1990 iraq invaded kuwait in august. Fears spread that saddams army might sieze the saudi oil fields. to protect the US economy, the nation prepared for war.the sovereign independence of of saudi was vital to us. areal bombardment causedto iraq's troops to withdraw.Oil prices and economy of us once again stablised.

it has been almost a century of the collapse of rockefeller's stadard oil, nor is monopoly enjoyed by the seven sisters today as it did before. However the oilcompanies continue the work started by edwin drake

searching the globe for the fuel that powers that powers the industrial powers,the black gold.