Black Gold | A Brief History of Oil Drilling

More than 3,000 years ago people knew about the energy source that comes from deep inside the earth. In ancient Mesopotamia in the Middle East, black, sticky oil, called bitumen, often seeped to the surface through cracks in the ground. The bitumen and oil-based gases that drifted up from the cracks were flammable, but these petroleum products were not used for light or heat. Instead, ancient engineers used bitumen to hold together building blocks, and healers used oil as a medicine. In the Middle Ages the Greeks used burning oil as a weapon, but mass production of oil and its widespread use as a fule did not begin until the 19th century.

In and around Titusville, Pennsylvania, citizens long had noted oil that collected near spring. Some enterprising businessmen figured there was more oil below the suface; all they needed was a way to get at it. In 1859 the first oil drill hit oil in Titusville, and the petroleum industry was born.

Drilling for and refining oil, like coal mining, proved to be dangerous even as the product helped to improve the lives of millions. It was only two years before the first major oil-well disaster took place. At a Titusville well oil and petroleum gases somehow ignited. The resulting explosion killed nineteen people, and the fire burned for three days. In recent years the typical oil refinery has averaged at least one fire a year.

Some of the worst oil disasters of the 20th century have not killed any people, but they have devastated the environment. Accidents at sea often lead to oil spills, which can wash millions of gallons of oil into delicate habitats, killing fish, animals, birds, and plants.

The first ship specifically designed to carry oil across the ocean sailed in 1886. It weighed about 3,500 tons. Over the years oil tankers grew to astronomical sizes; in the 1970s some ships weighed 500,000 tons when fully loaded with oil.

These supertankers made it cheaper for oil companies to ship their products around the world, but these ships also increased the rish of disaster. The danger of huge fires was always present, and sailors nicknamed the supertankers "floating bombs". In addition, the technology that let engineers design these sea giants was not perfect--lareger ships tended to have more structural defects, leading to sinkings in stormy seas. In the 1980s more than three dozen supertankers carrying oil or mineral sank due to structural failures.