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
