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Is it going to be oil-right?
The oil and gas industry has its roots in ancient history, where naturally occurring petroleum and bitumen were used by early civilisations for construction, waterproofing, lighting and medicine. The modern oil and gas industry emerged in the nineteenth century with technological advances in drilling and refining, marked notably by successfully drilled oil wells in Pennsylvania in 1859 and often regarded as the start of the modern petroleum era (Yergin, 2008; Library of Congress, n.d.). Rapid industrialisation, the spread of electricity, and later the rise of the automobile transformed oil and gas into strategic global commodities in the early- to mid-twentieth century. In the later-to-modern period, state control, nationalisation, and geopolitical tensions have reshaped the industry, making oil and gas central not only to global economic development but international politics as well.
30 March 2026
