Editing Petroleum (section)

=== Early ===
[[File:Edwindrake.jpg|thumb|In 1859, [[Edwin Drake]] drilled the world's first successful oil well at what is now known as [[Drake Well]] in [[Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania]]]]
[[File:Gusher Okemah OK 1922.jpg|thumb|An oil derrick in [[Okemah, Oklahoma]] in 1922]]
Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times. More than 4300 years ago, [[bitumen]] was mentioned when the Sumerians used it to make boats. A tablet of the legend of the birth of [[Sargon of Akkad]] mentions a basket which was closed by straw and bitumen. More than 4000 years ago, according to [[Herodotus]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]], [[Bitumen|asphalt]] was used in the construction of the walls and towers of [[Babylon]]; there were oil pits near Ardericca and Babylon, and a pitch spring on [[Zakynthos]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|wstitle=Petroleum |volume=21 |page=316 |first=Boverton |last=Redwood |inline=1}}</ref> Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river [[Issus (river)|Issus]], one of the tributaries of the [[Euphrates]]. Ancient [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] [[Persepolis Administrative Archives|tablets]] indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society.

The use of petroleum in ancient [[China]] dates back to more than 2000 years ago. The ''[[I Ching]]'', one of the earliest Chinese writings, cites that oil in its raw state, without refining, was first discovered, extracted, and used in China in the first century BCE. In addition, the Chinese were the first to record the use of petroleum as fuel as early as the fourth century BCE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhiguo |first=Gao |title=Environmental regulation of oil and gas |date=1998 |publisher=Kluwer Law International |isbn=978-90-411-0726-8 |location=London |page=8 |oclc=39313498}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Deng |first=Yinke |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientchinesein0000deng |title=Ancient Chinese Inventions |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-521-18692-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientchinesein0000deng/page/40 40] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=Michael |title=Nanotechnology: The Business |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4200-5399-9 |page=3}}</ref> By 347 CE, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Totten |first=George E. |title=ASTM International – Standards Worldwide |url=http://www.astm.org/COMMIT/D02/to1899_index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706232229/https://www.astm.org/COMMIT/D02/to1899_index.html |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |access-date=March 18, 2018 |website=astm.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dalvi |first=Samir |title=Fundamentals of Oil & Gas Industry for Beginners |publisher=Notion Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-93-5206-419-9}}</ref>

In the 7th century, petroleum was among the essential ingredients for [[Greek fire]], an incendiary projectile weapon that was used by [[Byzantine Greeks]] against Arab ships, which were then attacking [[Constantinople]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Greek fire {{!}} Byzantine, Naval Warfare, Incendiary {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/Greek-fire |access-date=October 1, 2023 |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> Crude oil was also distilled by [[Alchemy in the medieval Islamic world|Persian chemists]], with clear descriptions given in Arabic handbooks such as those of [[Abu Bakr al-Razi]] (Rhazes).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Forbes |first=Robert James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eckUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA149 |title=Studies in Early Petroleum History |date=1958 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |page=149 |access-date=April 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200315165347/https://books.google.com/books?id=eckUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA149 |archive-date=March 15, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> The streets of [[Baghdad]] were paved with [[tar]], derived from petroleum that became accessible from natural fields in the region.

In the 9th century, [[oil field]]s were exploited in the area around modern [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan]]. These fields were described by the [[Persian geographer]] [[Abu Bakr al-Razi]] in the 10th century, and by [[Marco Polo]] in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salim Al-Hassani |title=A shared legacy: Islamic science East and West |publisher=[[University of Barcelona|Edicions Universitat Barcelona]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-84-475-3285-8 |editor-last=Emilia Calvo Labarta |pages=57–82 [63] |chapter=1000 Years of Missing Industrial History |author-link=Salim Al-Hassani |editor-last2=Mercè Comes Maymo |editor-last3=Roser Puig Aguilar |editor-last4=Mònica Rius Pinies}}</ref> [[Alchemy and chemistry in Islam|Arab and Persian chemists]] also distilled crude oil to produce [[flammable]] products for military purposes. Through [[Islamic Spain]], distillation became available in [[Western Europe]] by the 12th century.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=petroleum |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/454269/petroleum |access-date=June 30, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429155229/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/454269/petroleum |archive-date=April 29, 2015 |last2=Gordon I. Atwater |author1=Joseph P. Riva Jr. |url-status=live}}</ref> It has also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură.<ref>Istoria Romaniei, Vol II, p. 300, 1960</ref>

Sophisticated oil pits, {{convert|15|to|20|ft|m|order=flip|round=0.5}} deep, were dug by the [[Seneca people]] and other [[Iroquois]] in [[Western Pennsylvania]] as early as 1415–1450. The French General [[Louis-Joseph de Montcalm]] encountered Seneca using petroleum for ceremonial fires and as a healing lotion during a visit to [[Fort Duquesne]] in 1750.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Keoke |first1=Emory Dean |title=American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and Innovations |last2=Porterfield |first2=Kay Marie |publisher=Facts on File |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8160-5367-4 |page=199}}</ref>

Early British explorers to [[Myanmar]] documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in [[Yenangyaung]] that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Longmuir |first=Marilyn V. |title=Oil in Burma: the extraction of "earth-oil" to 1914 |date=2001 |publisher=White Lotus Press |isbn=978-974-7534-60-3 |location=Bangkok |page=329 |oclc=48517638}}</ref>

[[Merkwiller-Pechelbronn]] is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, notably for medical purposes.