Thousands of years ago, people in the Middle East found sticky black oil seeping up in pools through the ground from vast underground reserves and used it for many purposes, including waterproofing their houses. In ancient China, people used iron- - tipped bamboo drills to drill into the earth for saltwater, but found oil and gas as well. They burned the gas under big pans of the saltwater to extract the salt.

King oil

Ancient oil

Oil for light

Dawn of the oil age

The oil bonanza

What is oil?

Where oil comes from

Natural gas

Coal and peat

Oil traps

Solid oil

How oil is found

Getting the oil out

Offshore oil rigs

Piped oil

Oil on the ocean

Refining oil

Energy and transport

Materials from oil

Plastics and polymers

Big oil

The struggle for oil

Dirty oil

Saving oil

Oil substitutes

Wind power

Solar energy

Water power

Nuclear power

Production and consumption

Timeline

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Glossary

Index