Seep
Encyclopedia
A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation structures. The hydrocarbons may escape along geological layers, or across them through fractures and fissures in the rock, or directly from an outcrop
of oil-bearing rock.
Petroleum
seeps are quite common in such areas of the world and have been known and exploited by mankind since paleolithic
times. Natural products associated with these seeps include bitumen, pitch
, asphalt
and tar. The occurrence of petroleum was often included in location names that developed; these locations are also associated with early exploitation as well as scientific and technological developments, which have grown into the petroleum industry
.
and natural seep deposits dates back to paleolithic times. The earliest known use of bitumen was by Neanderthal
s, some 40,000 years ago; bitumen has been found adhering to stone tool
s used by Neanderthals at sites in Syria
. After the arrival of Homo sapiens, humans used bitumen for construction of buildings and water proofing of reed boat
s, among other uses. The use of bitumen for waterproofing and as an adhesive dates at least to the third millennium
BCE
in the early Indus community
of Mehrgarh
where it was used to line the baskets in which they gathered crop
s. The material was also used it as early as the third millennium BCE in statuary, mortaring brick walls, waterproofing baths and drains, in stair treads, and for shipbuilding. According to Herodotus
, and confirmed by Diodorus Siculus
, more than four thousand years ago natural asphalt was employed in the construction of the walls and towers of Babylon
; there were oil pits near Ardericca (near Babylon), as well as a pitch spring on Zacynthus (Ionian islands
, Greece). Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus
, one of the tributaries of the Euphrates
. In ancient times, bitumen was primarily a Mesopotamian commodity used by the Sumerians and Babylonians, although it was also found in the Levant
and Persia. Along the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, the area was littered with hundreds of pure bitumen seepages. The Mesopotamians used the bitumen for waterproofing boats and buildings. Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. In ancient Egypt
, the use of bitumen was important in creating Egyptian mummies—in fact, the word mummy
is derived from the Arab word mūmiyyah, which means bitumen. Oil from seeps was exploited in the Roman province of Dacia
, now in Romania
, where it was called picula.
In East Asia these locations were known in China, where the earliest known drilled oil well
s date to 347 AD or earlier. The ancient records of China and Japan are said to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting and heating. Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan in the 7th century. In his book Dream Pool Essays
written in 1088, the polymathic scientist and statesman Shen Kuo
of the Song Dynasty
coined the word 石油 (Shíyóu, literally "rock oil") for petroleum, which remains the term used in contemporary Chinese.
In southwest Asia The first streets of 8th century Baghdad
were paved with tar, derived from natural seep 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 Arab geographer
Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo
in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Petroleum was distilled
by the Persian alchemist
, Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes), in the 9th century, producing chemicals such as kerosene
in the alembic
(al-ambiq), and which was mainly used for kerosene lamp
s. Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable
products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain
, distillation became available in Western Europe
by the 12th century. It has also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură.
In Europe, they were extensively mined near the Alsace
city of Pechelbronn
, where the vapor separation process was in use in 1742 In Switzerland about 1710, the Russian-born Swiss physician and Greek teacher Eyrini d'Eyrinis discovered asphaltum at Val-de-Travers
, (Neuchâtel). He established a bitumen mine de la Presta there in 1719 that operated until 1986. Oil sands here were mined from 1745 under the direction of Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière
, by special appointment of Louis XV. The Pechelbronn oil field was active until 1970, and was the birth place of companies like Antar
and Schlumberger
. In 1745 under the Empress Elisabeth of Russia the first oil well and refinery were built in Ukhta
by Fiodor Priadunov. Through the process of distillation of the "rock oil" (petroleum
) he received a kerosene-like substance, which was used in oil lamps by Russian churches and monasteries (though households still relied on candles).
The earliest mention of petroleum seeps in the Americas occurs in Sir Walter Raleigh's account of the Pitch Lake
on Trinidad
in 1595; while thirty-seven years later, the account of a visit of a Franciscan, Joseph de la Roche d'Allion, to the oil springs of New York was published in Sagard's Histoire du Canada. In North America, the early European fur traders found Canadian First Nations
using bitumen from the vast Athabasca oil sands
to waterproof their birch bark
canoes. A Finnish born Swedish scientist, Peter Kalm, in his work Travels into North America published first in 1753 showed on a map the oil springs of Pennsylvania. In 1769 the Portolà expedition
, a group of Spanish explorers led by Gaspar de Portolà
, made the first written record of the tar pits in California. Father Juan Crespi
wrote, "While crossing the basin the scouts reported having seen some geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs; it boils up molten, and the water runs to one side and the tar to the other. The scouts reported that they had come across many of these springs and had seen large swamps of them, enough, they said, to caulk many vessels. We were not so lucky ourselves as to see these tar geysers, much though we wished it; as it was some distance out of the way we were to take, the Governor [Portola] did not want us to go past them. We christened them Los Volcanes de Brea [the Tar Volcanoes]."
from crude oil as early as 1823, and the process of refining kerosene from coal by Nova Scotia
n Abraham Pineo Gesner
in 1846; but it was only after Ignacy Łukasiewicz had improved Gesner's method to develop a means of refining kerosene from the more readily available "rock oil" ("petr-oleum") seeps, in 1852, that the first rock oil mine was built near Krosno
in central European Galicia (Poland/Ukraine
) in 1853. In 1854, Benjamin Silliman
, a science professor at Yale University
, was the first American to fractionate petroleum by distillation. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world,
The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853, and the second in nearby Romania
in 1857. At around the same time the world's first, but small, oil refineries were opened at Jasło, in Poland, with a larger one being opened at Ploiești
, in Romania, shortly after. Romania is the first country in the world to have its crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics, namely 275 tonnes. By the end of the 19th century the Russian Empire, particularly in Azerbaijan
, had taken the lead in production.
The first oil "well" in North America was in Oil Springs, Ontario
, Canada in 1858, dug by James Miller Williams
. The US petroleum industry
began with Edwin Drake
's drilling of a 69 feet (21 m) oil well in 1859, on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania
, both named for their petroleum seeps.
Other sources of oil, initially associated with petroleum seeps were discovered in Peru (1863), in Zorritos District
, in the Dutch East Indies
(1885), on Sumatra
, in ersia (1908), at Masjed Soleiman, as well as in Venezuela, Mexico, and the province of Alberta
, Canada.
By 1910, these too were being developed at an industrial level. Initially these petroleum sources and products were for use in fueling lamp, but with the development of the internal combustion engine
, their supply could not meet the increased demand; many of these early traditional sources and "local finds" were soon outpaced by technology and demand.
has thousands of naturally occurring seeps. Much of the petroleum discovered in California during the 19th century was from observations of seeps. The world's largest natural oil seepage is Coal Oil Point
in the Santa Barbara Channel
, California
. Three of the better known tar seep locations in California are McKittrick Tar Pits
, Carpinteria Tar Pits
and the La Brea Tar Pits
.
At Kern River Oil Field
, there are no active seeps. However, oil stained formations in outcrop remain from previously active seeps. Petroleum seeps may be a significant source of pollution
.
in western Kern County, there are numerous seeps. Some of the seeps flow into drainages that drain toward the San Joaquin Valley floor.
The McKittrick seeps were mined for asphalt
by the native Americans, and in the 1870s, larger scale mining was undertaken by means of both open pits and shafts. In 1893, Southern Pacific Railroad
constructed a line to Asphalto, 2 miles from present day McKittrick. Fuel oil for the railroad was advantageous, especially since there are very few coal bearing formations in California. The field is produced now by conventional oil wells, as well as by steam fracturing.
The oil seeps at McKittrick are located in diatomite formation that has been thrust faulted over the younger sandstone formations. Similarly, in the Upper Ojai Valley in Ventura County, tar seeps are aligned with east-west faulting. In the same area, Sulphur Mountain
is named for the hydrogen sulfide-laden springs. The oilfields in the Sulphur Mountain area date from the 1870s. Production was from tunnels dug into the face of a cliff, and produced by gravity drainage.
, there are more than 600 natural oil seeps that leak between five and one million barrels of oil per year - roughly 4k to 200k tonnes. When a petroleum seep forms underwater it may form a peculiar type of volcano known as an asphalt volcano
.
The California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources published a map of offshore oil seeps from Point Aguello (north of Santa Barbara) to Mexico. In addition, they published a brochure describing the seeps. The brochure also discusses the underground blowout at Platform A which caused the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
. It also describes accounts from divers, who describe seepage changes after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake.
In Utah, there are natural oil seeps at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake. The oil seeps at Rozel Point can be seen when the lake level drops below an elevation of approximately 4198 feet; if the lake level is higher, the seeps are underwater. The seeps can be found by going to the Golden Spike historical site, and from there, following signs for the Spiral Jetty. Both fresh tar seeps and re-worked tar (tar caught by the waves and thrown up on the rocks) are visible at the site.
The petroleum seeping at Rozel Point is high in sulfur, but has no hydrogen sulfide. This may be related to deposition in an hypersaline lacustrine environment.
Outcrop
An outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. -Features:Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be...
of oil-bearing rock.
Petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
seeps are quite common in such areas of the world and have been known and exploited by mankind since paleolithic
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic Age, Era or Period, is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools discovered , and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory...
times. Natural products associated with these seeps include bitumen, pitch
Pitch (resin)
Pitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
, asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
and tar. The occurrence of petroleum was often included in location names that developed; these locations are also associated with early exploitation as well as scientific and technological developments, which have grown into the petroleum industry
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
.
Ancient knowledge and finds
The exploitation of bituminous rocksBituminous rocks
Organic-rich sedimentary rocks are a specific type of sedimentary rock that contains significant amounts of organic carbon. The most common types include coal, lignite, oil shale, or black shale...
and natural seep deposits dates back to paleolithic times. The earliest known use of bitumen was by Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
s, some 40,000 years ago; bitumen has been found adhering to stone tool
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric, particularly Stone Age cultures that have become extinct...
s used by Neanderthals at sites in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
. After the arrival of Homo sapiens, humans used bitumen for construction of buildings and water proofing of reed boat
Reed boat
Reed boats and rafts, along with dugout canoes and other rafts, are among the oldest known types of boats. Often used as traditional fishing boats, they are still used in a few places around the world, though they have generally been replaced with planked boats. Reed boats can be distinguished from...
s, among other uses. The use of bitumen for waterproofing and as an adhesive dates at least to the third millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
BCE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
in the early Indus community
Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...
of Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh , one of the most important Neolithic sites in archaeology, lies on the "Kachi plain" of Balochistan, Pakistan...
where it was used to line the baskets in which they gathered crop
Crop
Crop may refer to:* Crop, a plant grown and harvested for agricultural use* Crop , part of the alimentary tract of some animals* Crop , a modified whip used in horseback riding or disciplining humans...
s. The material was also used it as early as the third millennium BCE in statuary, mortaring brick walls, waterproofing baths and drains, in stair treads, and for shipbuilding. According to Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, and confirmed by Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
, more than four thousand years ago natural asphalt was employed in the construction of the walls and towers of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
; there were oil pits near Ardericca (near Babylon), as well as a pitch spring on Zacynthus (Ionian islands
Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands are a group of islands in Greece. They are traditionally called the Heptanese, i.e...
, Greece). Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus
Issus (river)
Issus, a river in Cilicia, Asia Minor, where Alexander the Great defeated Darius in 333 BC....
, one of the tributaries of the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
. In ancient times, bitumen was primarily a Mesopotamian commodity used by the Sumerians and Babylonians, although it was also found in the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
and Persia. Along the Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
and Euphrates rivers, the area was littered with hundreds of pure bitumen seepages. The Mesopotamians used the bitumen for waterproofing boats and buildings. Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. In ancient Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, the use of bitumen was important in creating Egyptian mummies—in fact, the word mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
is derived from the Arab word mūmiyyah, which means bitumen. Oil from seeps was exploited in the Roman province of Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
, now in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, where it was called picula.
In East Asia these locations were known in China, where the earliest known drilled oil well
Oil well
An oil well is a general term for any boring through the earth's surface that is designed to find and acquire petroleum oil hydrocarbons. Usually some natural gas is produced along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce mainly or only gas may be termed a gas well.-History:The earliest...
s date to 347 AD or earlier. The ancient records of China and Japan are said to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting and heating. Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan in the 7th century. In his book Dream Pool Essays
Dream Pool Essays
The Dream Pool Essays was an extensive book written by the polymath Chinese scientist and statesman Shen Kuo by 1088 AD, during the Song Dynasty of China...
written in 1088, the polymathic scientist and statesman Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua , style name Cunzhong and pseudonym Mengqi Weng , was a polymathic Chinese scientist and statesman of the Song Dynasty...
of the Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
coined the word 石油 (Shíyóu, literally "rock oil") for petroleum, which remains the term used in contemporary Chinese.
In southwest Asia The first streets of 8th century Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
were paved with tar, derived from natural seep fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil field
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
s were exploited in the area around modern Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. These fields were described by the Arab geographer
Islamic geography
Geography and cartography in medieval Islam refers to the advancement of geography, cartography and the earth sciences in the medieval Islamic civilization....
Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
in the 13th century, who described the output of those wells as hundreds of shiploads. Petroleum was distilled
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
by the Persian alchemist
Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam
Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry by scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word كيمياء or kīmīāʾ...
, Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes), in the 9th century, producing chemicals such as kerosene
Kerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
in the alembic
Alembic
An alembic is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube...
(al-ambiq), and which was mainly used for kerosene lamp
Kerosene lamp
The kerosene lamp is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. This article refers to kerosene lamps that have a wick and a tall glass chimney. Kerosene lanterns that have a wick and a glass globe are related to kerosene lamps and are included here as well...
s. Arab and Persian chemists also distilled crude oil in order to produce flammable
Flammability
Flammability is defined as how easily something will burn or ignite, causing fire or combustion. The degree of difficulty required to cause the combustion of a substance is quantified through fire testing. Internationally, a variety of test protocols exist to quantify flammability...
products for military purposes. Through Islamic Spain
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
, distillation became available in Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
by the 12th century. It has also been present in Romania since the 13th century, being recorded as păcură.
In Europe, they were extensively mined near the Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
city of Pechelbronn
Merkwiller-Pechelbronn
Merkwiller-Pechelbronn is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It is notable as the original home of oil sands mining....
, where the vapor separation process was in use in 1742 In Switzerland about 1710, the Russian-born Swiss physician and Greek teacher Eyrini d'Eyrinis discovered asphaltum at Val-de-Travers
Val-de-Travers
Val-de-Travers is a municipality in the district of Val-de-Travers in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It was created on 1 January 2009, when the former municipalities of Boveresse, Buttes, Couvet, Fleurier, Les Bayards, Môtiers, Noiraigue, Saint-Sulpice and Travers merged to form...
, (Neuchâtel). He established a bitumen mine de la Presta there in 1719 that operated until 1986. Oil sands here were mined from 1745 under the direction of Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière
Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière
In 1745 Louis Pierre Ancillon de la Sablonnière established the Pechelbronn bitumen mine at Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, Bas-Rhin, Alsace.He was an interpreter with the French ambassador to Switzerland, then the General Treasurer of the Ligues Suisses and Grisons....
, by special appointment of Louis XV. The Pechelbronn oil field was active until 1970, and was the birth place of companies like Antar
Antar
Antar may refer to:*Antarah ibn Shaddad, a 6th century celebrated pre-Islamic Arab warrior and poet.*Antares, the star that marks the heart of the Scorpio constellation and which Arab culture associates with Antar, the warrior-poet....
and Schlumberger
Schlumberger
Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services company. Schlumberger employs over 110,000 people of more than 140 nationalities working in approximately 80 countries...
. In 1745 under the Empress Elisabeth of Russia the first oil well and refinery were built in Ukhta
Ukhta
Ukhta is an important industrial town in the Komi Republic of Russia. Population: Oil springs along the Ukhta River were already known in the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, industrialist M. K. Sidorov started to drill for oil in this area. It was one of the first oil wells in...
by Fiodor Priadunov. Through the process of distillation of the "rock oil" (petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
) he received a kerosene-like substance, which was used in oil lamps by Russian churches and monasteries (though households still relied on candles).
The earliest mention of petroleum seeps in the Americas occurs in Sir Walter Raleigh's account of the Pitch Lake
Pitch Lake
The Pitch Lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world, located at La Brea in southwest Trinidad, within the Siparia Regional Corporation. The lake covers about 40 ha and is reported to be 75 m deep....
on Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
in 1595; while thirty-seven years later, the account of a visit of a Franciscan, Joseph de la Roche d'Allion, to the oil springs of New York was published in Sagard's Histoire du Canada. In North America, the early European fur traders found Canadian First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
using bitumen from the vast Athabasca oil sands
Athabasca Oil Sands
The Athabasca oil sands are large deposits of bitumen, or extremely heavy crude oil, located in northeastern Alberta, Canada - roughly centred on the boomtown of Fort McMurray...
to waterproof their birch bark
Birch bark
Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus Betula.The strong and water-resistant cardboard-like bark can be easily cut, bent, and sewn, which made it a valuable building, crafting, and writing material, since pre-historic times...
canoes. A Finnish born Swedish scientist, Peter Kalm, in his work Travels into North America published first in 1753 showed on a map the oil springs of Pennsylvania. In 1769 the Portolà expedition
Portola expedition
250px|right|Point of San Francisco Bay DiscoveryThe Portolá Expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá from July 14, 1769 to January 24, 1770. It was the first recorded Spanish land entry and exploration of present day California, United States...
, a group of Spanish explorers led by Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
, made the first written record of the tar pits in California. Father Juan Crespi
Juan Crespi
Father Juan Crespí was a Majorcan missionary and explorer of Las Californias. He entered the Franciscan order at the age of seventeen. He came to America in 1749, and accompanied explorers Francisco Palóu and Junípero Serra. In 1767 he went to the Baja Peninsula and was placed in charge of the...
wrote, "While crossing the basin the scouts reported having seen some geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs; it boils up molten, and the water runs to one side and the tar to the other. The scouts reported that they had come across many of these springs and had seen large swamps of them, enough, they said, to caulk many vessels. We were not so lucky ourselves as to see these tar geysers, much though we wished it; as it was some distance out of the way we were to take, the Governor [Portola] did not want us to go past them. We christened them Los Volcanes de Brea [the Tar Volcanoes]."
More modern associations
The modern history of petroleum exploitation, originally from seeps began in the 19th century with the refining of keroseneKerosene
Kerosene, sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage, also known as paraffin or paraffin oil in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland and South Africa, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid. The name is derived from Greek keros...
from crude oil as early as 1823, and the process of refining kerosene from coal by Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
n Abraham Pineo Gesner
Abraham Pineo Gesner
Abraham Pineo Gesner was a Canadian physician and geologist who invented kerosene. Although Ignacy Łukasiewicz developed the modern kerosene lamp, starting the world's oil industry, Gesner is considered a primary founder. Gesner was born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia...
in 1846; but it was only after Ignacy Łukasiewicz had improved Gesner's method to develop a means of refining kerosene from the more readily available "rock oil" ("petr-oleum") seeps, in 1852, that the first rock oil mine was built near Krosno
Krosno
Krosno is a town and county in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland with 47,455 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009.Notably Krosno is the site of the first oil well in the world....
in central European Galicia (Poland/Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) in 1853. In 1854, Benjamin Silliman
Benjamin Silliman
Benjamin Silliman was an American chemist, one of the first American professors of science , and the first to distill petroleum.-Early life:...
, a science professor at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, was the first American to fractionate petroleum by distillation. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world,
The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853, and the second in nearby Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
in 1857. At around the same time the world's first, but small, oil refineries were opened at Jasło, in Poland, with a larger one being opened at Ploiești
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
, in Romania, shortly after. Romania is the first country in the world to have its crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics, namely 275 tonnes. By the end of the 19th century the Russian Empire, particularly in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, had taken the lead in production.
The first oil "well" in North America was in Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs is a village in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, located along Former Provincial Highway 21 south of Oil City. The village, an enclave within Enniskillen Township, is home to the Oil Museum of Canada....
, Canada in 1858, dug by James Miller Williams
James Miller Williams
James Miller Williams was a businessman and political figure in Ontario, Canada. He represented Hamilton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 1879. He is also commonly viewed as the father of the petroleum industry in Canada.He was born in 1818 in Camden, New Jersey, and apprenticed...
. The US petroleum industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
began with Edwin Drake
Edwin Drake
Edwin Laurentine Drake , also known as Colonel Drake, was an American oil driller, popularly credited with being the first to drill for oil in the United States.-Early life:...
's drilling of a 69 feet (21 m) oil well in 1859, on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville, Pennsylvania
Titusville is a city in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,146 at the 2000 census. In 1859, oil was successfully drilled in Titusville, resulting in the birth of the modern oil industry.-History:...
, both named for their petroleum seeps.
Other sources of oil, initially associated with petroleum seeps were discovered in Peru (1863), in Zorritos District
Zorritos District
Zorritos District is one of the three districts of the province Contralmirante Villar in Peru.-References:...
, in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
(1885), on Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, in ersia (1908), at Masjed Soleiman, as well as in Venezuela, Mexico, and the province of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada.
By 1910, these too were being developed at an industrial level. Initially these petroleum sources and products were for use in fueling lamp, but with the development of the internal combustion engine
Internal combustion engine
The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...
, their supply could not meet the increased demand; many of these early traditional sources and "local finds" were soon outpaced by technology and demand.
California seeps
CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
has thousands of naturally occurring seeps. Much of the petroleum discovered in California during the 19th century was from observations of seeps. The world's largest natural oil seepage is Coal Oil Point
Coal Oil Point seep field
The Coal Oil Point seep field offshore from Santa Barbara, California is a petroleum seep area of about three square kilometers adjacent to the Ellwood Oil Field, and releases about 40 tons per day of methane and about 19 tons of reactive organic gas , about twice the hydrocarbon air pollution...
in the Santa Barbara Channel
Santa Barbara Channel
The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Pacific Ocean which separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the city of Ventura....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Three of the better known tar seep locations in California are McKittrick Tar Pits
McKittrick Tar Pits
The McKittrick Tar Pits are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the western part of Kern County in southern California. The pits are the most extensive asphalt lakes in the state...
, Carpinteria Tar Pits
Carpinteria Tar Pits
The Carpinteria Tar Pits are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the southern part of Santa Barbara County in southern California....
and the La Brea Tar Pits
La Brea Tar Pits
The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water...
.
At Kern River Oil Field
Kern River Oil Field
The Kern River Oil Field is a large oil field in Kern County in the San Joaquin Valley of California, north-northeast of Bakersfield in the lower Sierra foothills...
, there are no active seeps. However, oil stained formations in outcrop remain from previously active seeps. Petroleum seeps may be a significant source of pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
.
McKittrick seeps
In McKittrick Oil FieldMcKittrick Oil Field
The McKittrick Oil Field is a large oil and gas field in western Kern County, California. The town of McKittrick overlies the northeastern portion of the oil field...
in western Kern County, there are numerous seeps. Some of the seeps flow into drainages that drain toward the San Joaquin Valley floor.
The McKittrick seeps were mined for asphalt
Asphalt
Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
by the native Americans, and in the 1870s, larger scale mining was undertaken by means of both open pits and shafts. In 1893, Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
constructed a line to Asphalto, 2 miles from present day McKittrick. Fuel oil for the railroad was advantageous, especially since there are very few coal bearing formations in California. The field is produced now by conventional oil wells, as well as by steam fracturing.
The oil seeps at McKittrick are located in diatomite formation that has been thrust faulted over the younger sandstone formations. Similarly, in the Upper Ojai Valley in Ventura County, tar seeps are aligned with east-west faulting. In the same area, Sulphur Mountain
Sulphur Mountain
Sulphur Mountain is a mountain in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains overlooking the town of Banff, Alberta, Canada.The mountain was named in 1916 for the hot springs on its lower slopes. George Dawson had referred to this landform as Terrace Mountain on his 1886 map of the area...
is named for the hydrogen sulfide-laden springs. The oilfields in the Sulphur Mountain area date from the 1870s. Production was from tunnels dug into the face of a cliff, and produced by gravity drainage.
Offshore seeps
In the Gulf of MexicoGulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, there are more than 600 natural oil seeps that leak between five and one million barrels of oil per year - roughly 4k to 200k tonnes. When a petroleum seep forms underwater it may form a peculiar type of volcano known as an asphalt volcano
Asphalt volcano
An asphalt volcano is a rare type of submarine volcano first discovered in 2003. Several examples have been found: first, along the coasts of America and Mexico, and, recently, all over the world; a few are still active...
.
The California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources published a map of offshore oil seeps from Point Aguello (north of Santa Barbara) to Mexico. In addition, they published a brochure describing the seeps. The brochure also discusses the underground blowout at Platform A which caused the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill
The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel, near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. It was the largest oil spill in United States waters at the time, and now ranks third after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon Valdez spills...
. It also describes accounts from divers, who describe seepage changes after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake.
In Utah, there are natural oil seeps at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake. The oil seeps at Rozel Point can be seen when the lake level drops below an elevation of approximately 4198 feet; if the lake level is higher, the seeps are underwater. The seeps can be found by going to the Golden Spike historical site, and from there, following signs for the Spiral Jetty. Both fresh tar seeps and re-worked tar (tar caught by the waves and thrown up on the rocks) are visible at the site.
The petroleum seeping at Rozel Point is high in sulfur, but has no hydrogen sulfide. This may be related to deposition in an hypersaline lacustrine environment.