Blast from the Past: oil prices at the beginning

[c1ue]

This man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Silliman,_Jr. wrote a report in 1855 which led to the financing for the Drake oil well.

The price of oil which prompted said investment in 1855?

$20/barrel

In what is now the Ukraine, at much the same time, oil was harvested by hand and sold for $140/ton - roughly equal to $20/barrel.

From 1880 to 1970, the price of oil was roughly $1/barrel.

Source: Harvard Business School, "Oil's First Century"

[GRG55]

Re: Blast from the Past: oil prices at the beginning

This man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Silliman,_Jr. wrote a report in 1855 which led to the financing for the Drake oil well.

The price of oil which prompted said investment in 1855?

$20/barrel

In what is now the Ukraine, at much the same time, oil was harvested by hand and sold for $140/ton - roughly equal to $20/barrel.

From 1880 to 1970, the price of oil was roughly $1/barrel.

Source: Harvard Business School, "Oil's First Century"

In the late 1800's the primary use for crude oil was to make kerosene for lamps. The alternatives were expensive whale oil or nearly as expensive candles...so one presumes that the price of oil back then was mostly determined by the costs of supplying these alternatives. Until the infernal combustion engine came along that is...

[c1ue]

Re: Blast from the Past: oil prices at the beginning

In the late 1800's the primary use for crude oil was to make kerosene for lamps. The alternatives were expensive whale oil or nearly as expensive candles...so one presumes that the price of oil back then was mostly determined by the costs of supplying these alternatives. Until the infernal combustion engine came along that is...

Quite correct.

Silliman, Jr. in fact was a Yale chemist who published how to fractionally distill oil into lamp fuel, thus demonstrating a means to provide an alternate fuel source vs. whale oil.

While of course lighting today is a relatively small part of the energy landscape, it was a much bigger deal back then.