A.D. Oil wells are drilled in China up to 800 feet deep using bits attached to bamboo poles. 1264 Mining of seep oil in medieval Persia witnessed by Marco Polo on his travels through Baku . Seep oil collected in the Carpathian Mountains of Poland is used to light street lamps. 1735 Oil sands are mined and the oil extracted at Pechelbronn field in Alsace, France.
Oil is produced in United States as an undesirable by-product from a brine well in Pennsylvania.
First modern oil well is drilled in Asia, on the Aspheron Peninsula north-east of Baku, by Russian engineer F.N. Semyenov. 1849 Distillation of kerosene from oil by Canadian geologist Dr. Abraham Gesner. Kerosene eventually replaces whale oil as the illuminant of choice and creates a new market for crude oil. Oil from hand-dug pits in California at Los Angeles is distilled to produce lamp oil by General Andreas Pico. 1854 Natural Gas from a water well in Stockton, California is used to light the Stockton courthouse.