Chronology of Petroleum

The chronology is taken from Dilip Hiro's book, Blood of the Earth.

1846    The first modern oil well is drilled near Baku, Azerbaijan, by Russian engineer Fyodor Semyonov

1848    News of Semyonov's achievement reaches the czar's court in Moscow and is given official recognition

1858    The first commercial oil well is drilled in North America - in Oil Springs, Ontario, in Canada - by James Miller Williams

1859    The first commercial oil well is drilled in the United States in Titusville, Pennsylvania

1860    Etienne Lenoir in France invents an internal combustion engine

1861    Nikolaus Otto in Germany invents a gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine

1867    The first successful discovery of oil in Asia is at Nahorpung in the northeastern region of Assam in India

1870    John Davison Rockefeller establishes Standard Oil Company

1877    The practice of replacing coal with oil as fuel to power steamships originates in the Caspian's Baku region when the Nobel brothers build the world's first oil-fueled steamship; for the first time oil is transported by a pipeline of wood from Baku to the Black Sea coast of Georgia

1882    Carl Benz in Germany runs the first automobile with an internal combustion engine

1888    Charles Francis Brush, an American scientist, builds the first wind turbine for generating electricity

1895    George Selden in the United States secures a patent for a car run on gasolene

1896    John Ford produces his first motor car

1898    The Rothschild brothers launch the first oit tanker, which plies the Caspian Sea

1900    Worldwide demand for oil reaches 500,000 bpd

1901    Azerbaijan, which outpaces the United States in annual oil output by 11.5 million tons to 9.1 million tons is producing more than half of the global supply. A gusher at Spindletop, Texas, starts a boom in tne American oil industry. Muzaffar al Din Shah Qajar of Iran gives an oil concession to British entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy

1905    Henry Ford markets the Model T car in the United States. The gasoline-powered car has defeated its rivals run by steam or electricity

1907    The first successful oil well in China is drilled near the north-western city of Yunan

1908    The first continuously flowing oil well is drilled in the Middle East at Masjid-e Suleiman in Iran. With reserves of more than one billion barrels, it becomes the fourth such field in the world. Cargo ship owners in the United States switch from coal to oil

1910    German and American corporations pioneer commercial petrochemical products by using as feedstock a tar produced as a by-product from the chemical treatment of coal

1910    Ordered by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Navy starts switching to oil to power its warships

1911    The U.S. antitrust laws break up John Davison Rockefeller's Standard Oil into thirty-seven independent companies, while the Rockefeller interests retain substantial shareholding in all of them

1912    As the first lord of the British admiralty, Winston Churchill orders the building of a fleet of oil-fueled warships

1913    One million gasoline-powered vehicles are on the road in the United States and Europe

1914    World War I breaks out

1915    The process of lifting oil with injected gas is tested successfully when deep pumps are submerged in an oil field in the Baku region. Global oil demand reaches 1.25 million bpd

1917    With the United States' entry into World War I, its output of 920,000 bpd amounts to two-thirds of the global total

1918    World War I ends with the defeat of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire

1923    German scientists Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch patent a process to transform coal into liquid fuel

1927    Oil is struck in Iraq near Kirkuk

1929    The global oil demand is 4 million bpd

1931    Due to the Depression, the oil price collapses. In the United States, the governor of Oklahoma sends state troops to shut down oil wells and the governor of Texas closes the eastern Texas oil fields

1932    Oil is found in Bahrain

1933    U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Harold Ickes as interior secretary with a mandate to bring order to the oil industry. He decides to reduce national output by 300,000 bpd. The United States produces 64 percent of global oil needs, with six other countries jointly producing half as much

1938    Oil is struck at Burgan in Kuwait, with the field turning out to be the largest so far in the world. Oil is found in Saudi Arabia's Dammam region. Mexico nationalizes its oil industry. German scientists Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz Strassman conduct the first successful experiment with nuclear fission

1939    World War II starts

1941    Russell Ohl, a scientist at Bell Telephone laboratory, invents a silicon solar cell

1942    Enrico Fermi achieves a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago                                         

1943    President Roosevelt declares that Saudi Arabia is vital to U.S. security and provides it with financial aid

1945    In February, Saudi king Ibn Saud meets Roosevelt aboard an Amer­ican cruiser in the Suez Canal. In August, World War II ends with the defeat of the Axis Powers. Global oil demand hits 6 million bpd

1946    The United States consumes more oil than it produces. U.S. presi­dent Harry Truman establishes the United States Atomic Energy Commission to foster and control peacetime development of atomic energy

1947    Venezuela's new law requires the oil companies to pay half of their profits as tax. Middle Eastern oil-producing countries follow suit

1948-50 The fully discovered Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia is the largest in the world, with reserves of eighty-seven billion barrels

1949    Defeating their nationalist opponents, the Chinese Communists establish the People's Republic of China. Oil and gas produce only 1 percent of energy

1950    The world oil output is 10.4 million bpd

1951    The National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho produces usable elec­tricity from nuclear fission

1951-53  The Iranian oil nationalization crisis results in the flight of the Shah of Iran and his restitution following a coup engineered by the CIA

1953    In his "Atoms for Peace" speech, U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower proposes international cooperation to develop peaceful applications of nuclear energy

1954    The Soviet Union builds the first nuclear power plant at Obillioninsk

Mid-1950s       West Texas Intermediate (WTI) - intermediate between light and heavy oil - becomes the accepted international benchmark

1955    The seven-year-old apartheid regime in South Africa establishes South Africa Synthetic Oil Ltd (Sasol) in 1955 to use synfuel technology to convert coal into petroleum products, including diesel

1956    When the troika of Britain-France-Israel invades Egypt in October 1956, the Egyptians block the Suez Canal, thus cutting off oil sup­plies to western Europe from the Persian Gulf

1957    Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser convenes a conclave of Arab oil experts in Cairo. The United Nations establishes the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to encourage the peaceful use of atomic energy. The first industrial accident occurs at Britain's Windscale (later renamed Sellafield) nuclear reactor, when its graphite core catches fire and spills radiation into the environment

1958    The Soviet Union enters the international petroleum market by supplying oil at low prices

1959    Egypt convenes the Arab Petroleum Congress in Cairo

1960    OPEC is founded in Baghdad with five members. The global oil demand is 21 million bpd, with the United States accounting for a third

1962    A Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) cell is produced by Willard Grubb and Leonard Niedrach of General Electric Corporation for the Gemini space program

1967    In surprise attacks, Israel inflicts a quick, humiliating defeat on Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupies territories in all three countries in a six-day war in June. An Arab oil embargo against the United States, Britain and West Germany for helping Israel fails to hurt these counties since the United States has a spare capacity to supply Britain and West Germany. The Arabs end the boycott in August                       

1968    The Kuwaiti ruler convenes a meeting of the rulers of Algeria, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia to form OAPEC. The seven leading Western oil corporations control 78 percent of the world's oil production, 61 percent of refining, and 56 percent of marketing facilities

1969    Following the overthrow of monarchy in Libya, the republican regime slashes oil production

1960s  Two-thirds of the increased demand of 21 million bpd during the decade is met by the growth in oil output in the Middle East and North Africa

1970    In the past two decades, oil output has grown 4.5 times, to 45 mil­lion bpd, and living standards in the United States and Western Europe have risen sharply. Conventional oil production in the Lower 48 reaches a peak at 11.3 million bpd

1972    Iraq nationalizes its oil industry

1973    The five leading Persian Gulf producers supply 36 percent of the world's oil demand

1973    The Arab-Israeli War lasts from October 6 to 25. OAPEC imposes an embargo on oil sales to the United States and the Netherlands for helping Israel militarily. In November, Algeria raises the price of its crude from $4.80 to $9.25 a barrel; three weeks later the oil ministers of the eight Persian Gulf countries, including Iran under the shah, push the figure to $11.65 a barrel

1975    The recession caused by the oil-price explosion lasts until the end of 1976. U.S. president Gerald Ford implements the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards as required by a congressional law to improve vehicle mileage per gallon used. Kuwait completes the nationalization of its oil industry

1976    OPEC produces more than half of the global output and provides seven-eighths of the exports. Qatar completes the nationalization of its petroleum industry

1979    Following the overthrow of the Iranian shah, an Islamic regime is established in Iran. U.S. president Jimmy Carter sets up a Rapid Deployment Force to protect the sea lanes in the Persian Gulf used by oil tankers. Petroleum prices rise to $38 a barrel. There is a par­tial core meltdown at Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsyl­vania. The U.S. administration stops authorizing new nuclear reactors

1980    Carter declares: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States, and will be repelled by the use of any means necessary, including military force." Saudi Arabia completes the nationalization of its oil industry. In September Iraq invades Iran

1979-81  The second Oil Shock causes a recession. The price of natural gas jumps from 5 cents to $3 per 1,000 cubic feet

1981    The contribution of the nuclear-fueled power plants to the national grid in the United States has risen from 4.5 percent to 20 percent

1982    Non-OPEC outpaces OPEC's output of 19 million bpd, about a third of global production

1985    The share of the five leading Gulf producers falls to 16 percent of world demand. Much of the new non-OPEC production comes from offshore and remote areas that incur high front-end investment

1986    Oil prices fall below $ 10 a barrel in spring, causing a virtual collapse of the oil industry in the United States and severely damaging Iran's ability to finance its war with Iraq. In April an explosion at the Cher­nobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine produces a mile-high plume of radioactive particles, which drifts over 40 percent of Europe and as far away as Japan and the East Coast of the United States. In Western Europe the accelerating construction of nuclear power plants comes to a virtual halt. The Soviet Union follows Western Europe's lead

1988    The United Nations appoints the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to study the subject. The Iran-Iraq War ends in August

1990    Iraq invades Kuwait in August. The subsequent United Nations sanctions on Iraq result in the loss of Iraqi and Kuwaiti oil to the market, spiking prices. The IPCC report warns that if greenhouse gases are not curtailed drastically over the next few decades, global temperatures will rise between 1.5 and 5.8 degrees Celsius by 2100, causing worldwide havoc

1991    The U.S.-led coalition expels the Iraqis from Kuwait. In December the Soviet Union disintegrates into its constituent republics. An experi­mental fusion reactor, called the Joint European Torus, built at Culham near Oxford, Britain, is ready to use fusion fuel

1992    The recession caused by the hike in oil prices results in the defeat of U.S. president George H.W. Bush. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit requires every signatory to the convention to reduce greenhouse emissions, without specifying figures

1993    Moscow and Washington sign a twenty-year program to eliminate 500 tonnes of Russian nuclear warhead material by diluting it into nuclear fuel and selling it to utility companies in the United States. A similar program is to be implemented later in the United States

1995    Toyota introduces a "concept" automobile, powered by a hybrid engine - part gasoline, part electric. Car ownership reaches ten mil­lion in China

1997    Toyota markets its hybrid cars in Japan. In China, oil and gas produce 20 percent of all energy. In December, the UN Framework Conven­tion on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan, agrees that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the past two centuries is almost entirely caused by the industrialized nations. It specifies a col­lective 4.8 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 for 38 industrialized countries out of the 156 signatories.

1998    The U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol

1999    Following the bust of the 'tiger' economies in East and Southeast Asia in mid-1998, the oil price collapses to below $10 a barrel in early 1999 and leads to megamergers of Western oil companies

2000    On the fortieth anniversary of its founding, OPEC is pumping 42 percent of global oil output. But its spare capacity has declined from 25 percent of the global demand in 1985 to 2 percent. In September, the oil price hits $37 a barrel. U.S. president Bill Clinton releases 1 milIion bpd for thirty days from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an unprecedented step to take in peacetime to lower prices. In Germany coalition government of Social Democrats and the Greens reaches agreement with energy companies on the phased closure of nineteen nuclear power plants, producing 25 percent of electricity, by 2020

2001    Coal provides 28 percent of electric power worldwide, marginally less than the 1970s figure, the percentages varying between 20 percent in the United States and 80 percent in China. The Gas Exporting Coun­tries Forum (GECF) is established in Doha

2002    The greenhouse emissions in tonnes per capita are the United States, 5.5; Canada, 4.5; Russia, 2.8; Britain, 2.7; Japan, 2.6; Germany, 2.5; China 0.7; and India, 0.25. Annual oil consumption in barrels per capita is the United States, 65; Canada, 59; Japan, 46; Britain, 30; Germany, 29; Russia, 16; China 4; and India, 2

2003    Of the 750 million vehicles in a world of 6.1 billion people, 231 million are in the United States, with a population of nearly 300 million. Since 1984, the number of air conditioners in China has grown fiftyfold, refrigerators tenfold, and televisions fivefold. In March the Anglo-American alliance invades and occupies Iraq, alleging that the Iraqi regime possesses weapons of mass destruc­tion – which are not found. There are 370,000 U.S. Army troops deployed in 120 countries, including some 150,000 in Iraq, out of a total active duty force of 491,000

2004    Vauxhall puts its hydrogen cell car, Zafira, through a test run of six thou­sand miles. China becomes the second-largest consumer of oil in the world after the United States, producing only about a half at home. China burns a third of the world's consumption of 4.1 billion tonnes of coal. Studies show that between 1912 and 2004 alone, carbon emissions jumped sevenfold, from 1 billion tonnes a year to 7 billion tonnes

2005    In February the Kyoto Protocol becomes international law. Research shows that CO₂ has increased from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 380 ppm in two centuries, and will rise to 550 ppm by 2050 at the current rate of fossil fuel use, and that there is more CO₂ in the atmosphere now than at any time in the past 650,000 years. In India car sales reach 1 million, a fivefold increase in just over a decade, but are only 6 percent of the American figure. Article 109 of Iraq's new constitution states  that hydrocarbons are "national Iraqi property”

2006    In April the oil price hits $75 a barrel. The distribution of the world's oil reserves in percentages: Persian Gulf region, 62; former Soviet Union, 10; Latin America, 10; Africa, 10; North America, 4; Asia Pacific, 4. OPEC members possess 75 percent of the total reserves, and non-OPEC 25 percent. The latest research shows that greenhouse gases not only lead to higher temperatures but are themselves increased by higher temperatures, and that global warming may be up to 78 percent worse than previously predicted

2006    California passes two laws – one requiring the greenhouse gases emission to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, and the other barring out-of-state that fail to meet the state's standards for pollution.

Sankhya Yantra

Astrologists claim that wearing tables of magic squares engraved on copper sheets bring good luck and placate angry planets. A few such squares, called Sankhya Yantra (Number machines) are given below for amusement and pity at the pigheadedness of people who go tailing the astrologers. The data is taken from Anushtaana Vijnana Kosham by Dr. K Balakrishna Varrier.

1. Aditya (Sun)

6	1	8
7	5	3
2	9	4

2. Chandra (Moon)

7	2	9
8	6	4
3	10	5

3. Kuja (Mars)

8	3	10
9	7	5
4	11	6

4. Rahu (Ascending node)

13	8	15
14	12	10
9	16	11

5. Kethu (Descending node)

14	9	16
15	13	11
10	17	12

6. Guru (Jupiter)

10	5	12
11	9	7
6	13	8

7. Sani (Saturn)

12	7	14
13	11	9
8	15	10

8. Budha (Mercury)

9	4	11
10	8	6
5	12	7

9. Sukra (Venus)

11	6	13
12	10	8
7	14	9

Theomatic glossary

Some Mind-Boggling Terminology

Many "History behind the Science Fiction" sections outline some of the more obscure and fascinating information available on the life of Pythagoras to facilitate your reading, I define a list of theological terms used in these chapters and throughout the book. These terms are also frequently found in serious theomatic literature discussing the end of the universe, and I find the words interesting in their own right. I hope you find this list both amusing and enlightening.

1. Aniconic — referring to simple material symbols of a god, for example a pillar or block, not shaped into an actual image of human form.

2. Anamnesis — a remembrance, sometimes used in reference to past lives in rein­carnation theologies. Pythagoras and Plato believed the soul pre-existed in past lives where it gained ideas useful in the present life.

3. Antichthon — A hypothetical second Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. Pythagoras and his followers asserted the existence of the Antichthon. See counter-earth.

4. Apocrypha — Writing of dubious authorship. A term specifically applied to those books in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of the Old Testament which were not originally written in Hebrew and not counted genuine by the Jews. The Apocrypha were excluded from Sacred Canon by the Protestants because they have no well-grounded claim to inspired authorship.

5. Aretalogy — a story of miracles performed by a divine hero or god. Aretalogy often concerns the acts of a thaumaturge.                                            

6. Apocalypse — the revelation of the future granted to St. John. Also the book of the New Testament in which St. John recorded this information. Apocalypse generally means "revelation", and it is sometimes applied to various Old Testament prophetic writing (particularly Ezekiel and Daniel), some pseudepigraphic writing (such as the books of Enoch), and some of the Apocrypha (such as four Esdras). Its subject is often eschatologtcal.

7. Armageddon - the place of the last decisive battle at the Day ofJudgment. (No relation to Armagnac, a superior brandy made in the district of France formerly called Armagnac.)

8. Chthonic — dwelling beneath the Earth.

9. Catachthonian — subterranean.

10. Cenotaph — monument erected in honor of a deceased person whose body is elsewhere.

11. Choical — a Gnostic term for earthy.

12. Counter-earth — an opposite or secondary Earth in which Pythagoreans believed. See antichthon.

13. Didache — the name of a Christian treatise of the beginning of the 2nd century. Also the instructional element in early Christian theology, as distinct from kerygma or preaching.

14. Doomsday — the judgment day or end of the world.

15. Dweomercraeft — jugglery and magic art. Sorcery. Also see necromancy.

16. Eisegesis — the interpretation of Scripture by reading into it one's own ideas.

17. Enatiodromia — the process by which a belief becomes its opposite, and the sub­sequent interaction of the initial belief and its opposite. A good example of ena­tiodromia is seen in the psychology of Saul of Tarsus and his conversion to Christianity. Heraclitus believed that all beliefs eventually meet their opposites. In 1943, E. L. Mascall noted that one of the main tenets of Islam is submission, and by that enatiodromia, because Islam became "the most militant religion in history, for once the believer has made his submission, he sees himself as an instrument of the divine ruthlessness." An example of an enatiodromiacal reac­tion is the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The repres­sive Middle Ages, with its increasing dogmatism and formalism, produced an enatiodromical reaction of the Renaissance.

18. Epiclesis — a part of the prayer of consecration where the Holy Spirit is invoked to bless the eucharist and/or communicants.

19. Eschatologist — one who studies eschatology.

20. Eschatology — Geological science concerned with the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The study of the end of history. Some Christians see the life of the individual Christian and the Church as a series of decisions with an eschatological nature.

21. Eschaton — the divinely ordained climax of history. In many of the apocalyptic cults, eschaton is always close at hand.

22. Exegesis — practical explanation or critical interpretation of Scripture.

23. Feng-shui — in Chinese mythology, a system of spirtual influences which inhabit the natural features of landscapes. Feng-shui is a kind of geomancy for selecting appropriate sites for houses and graves.

24. Geomancy — divination using signs derived from the earth. For example, the pattern produced by a pile of sand may be used to predict the future. Geomancy is also divination by means of lines or figures formed by jotting down on a paper a number of dots at random.

25. Gigantology — treatises about giants.

26. Goety — witchcraft or magic performed by the invocation and employment of evil spirits.

27. Hermeneutic — concerning interpretation, especially distinguished from exegesis. The study of the methodological principles of interpretation of the Bible.

28. Hermetica — works of revelation dealing with occult, theological, and philosophical subjects attributed to the Egyptial god Thoth (Greek Hermes Trismegistos, i.e., “Hermes the Thrice-Greatest”), who was said to be the inventor of writing and all the arts that depend on writing. During Hellenistic times, there was an increasing distrust of traditional Greek rationalism and the destruction of the line between science and religion. Hermes-Thoth was one of several gods to whom humans turned to for wisdom.

29. Interimsethik — the moral principles given by Jesus interpreted as a guide to humans expecting the imminent end of the world.

30. Lullian — belonging to the mystical philosophy of Raymon Lull (1234-1315). (See Chapter 9 for more on Lullists.)

31. Kerygma — preaching (see Didache) or proclamation of religious truth.

32. Lungis — apocryphal name of the Roman officer who pierced Jesus with a spear.

33. Metempsychosis — transmigration of human or animals souls into a new body (whether of the same or different species). A tenet of Pythagoreans and Bud­dhists.

34. Meturgeman — an interpreter of religious law. See also Targum.

35. Monad — the number one, historically used with reference to Pythagoras who regarded numbers as real entities and as primordial principles of existence. The term was adopted by Leibniz from Giordano Bruno (Chapter 13), with whom "monad" referred to material atoms and ultimate elements of psychical exis­tence.

36. Necromancy — the art of communicating with the dead.

37. Nobodaddy — a disrespectful name for God, used by William Blake and others. For example, Joyce in Ulysses says, "Whether these be sins or virtues, old Nobodaddy will tell us at doomsday."

38. Palingensia — Pythagorean belief in rebirth after death, cyclical regeneration.

39. Pareschatology — theorits about human life and physical death before the final resolution. In contrast, eschatology is the doctrine of the eschata or last things. In other words, pareschatology is the study of paraeschatata or next-to-last things, and therefore the human future between the current life and humans and their ultimate state. In a 1977 issue of Theology Today (XXXIV.182), there is a discussion of pareschatology as a doctrine of resurrection expanded to include “vertical” as opposed to “horizontal” reincarnation. In the 1977 Times Literary Supplement (April 1, 390/4), there is an examination of Western and Eastern pareschatologies, and images of what happens between death and an ultimate state.

40. Phyletism — in the Orthodox Church, an excessive emphasis on the principle of nationalism in the organization of church affairs. Phyletism attaches greater importance to ethnic identity than to faith and worship.

41. Preterist — one who holds that the prophesies of the Apocalypse have already been fulfilled.

42. Protology — the study of origins. Some religions may place more stress on protology than eschatology.

43. Pseudepigrapha — books bearing a false title or ascribed to the incorrect author. The term is specifically applied to certain Jewish writings dating to the beginning of the Christian era but ascribed to various patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament.

44. Scatophagy — religious practice of eating excrement.

45. Sciomancy — divination by communicating with the shades of the dead.

46. Targum — Aramaic translations of parts of the Old Testament, made after the Babylonian captivity, at first preserved by word-of-mouth, and committed to writing starting in A.D. 100.

47. Thaumaturge — worker of miracles and wondrous things. Some historians describe Pythagoras as a thaumaturge.

48. Theomatic — a melding of theology and mathematics. Similarly, the word theomata is defined as works arising from this melding of theology and math.

49. Theurgy — a system of magic to facilitate communication with beneficent spirits and produce miraculous effects. The art or science of compelling or persuading God to do something. Theurgy is sometimes known as "white magic", while goety is "black magic". Theurgy is also defined as the operation of a divine or supernatural agency in human affairs.