Abstract The northern segments of the Carpathians, stretching between Limanowa (Poland) and Kosów (Ukraine), belonged to the most prolific hydrocarbon province in the world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The earliest written accounts of natural occurrences of hydrocarbons in the Carpathians date back to the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Rzączyński, Kluk, Hacquest and Staszic provided accounts on methods of practical use related to oil. Staszic’s geological map shows numerous oil seeps and different rock types containing hydrocarbons. The development of the oil industry was triggered by Łukasiewicz’s discovery of an oil-distillation process and the construction of a kerosene lamp. Following this, the oil industry flourished in the Northern Carpathians. Oil production peaked at 2 Mt (million tons) of crude oil in 1910. In subsequent years, the level of oil production steadily decreased due to a turbulent economy. Exploration for oil, gas and ozokerite resulted in the development of modern micropalaeontology and geological mapping, with a prime example being the regional coverage of almost the entire Northern Carpathians provided by the Atlas Geologiczny Galicyi ( Geological Atlas of Galicia ), which consisted of 99 high-quality geological maps at a scale of 1:75 000. Geophysical surveying techniques were applied to subsurface mapping, and higher educational institutions were established in order to support exploration efforts.

Abstract By correlation of various selected physical and chemical properties of heavy crude oils and natural bitumens, an attempt is made to solve classification problems. The criteria used here are, in descending order: viscosity, gravity, H/C atomic ratio, O/C atomic ratio, optical reflectivity, volatiles, and composition. Crude oil and natural bitumen are considered to be petroleum classes; light, medium, heavy, and extra-heavy crude oils as subclasses analogous to light bitumen, tar sands oil, and natural asphalt. Bitumen families are ozokerite, pyrobitumen, asphaltite, and impsonite. Bitumen species are elaterite, wurtzilite, and albertite of the pyrobitumen family; gilsonite, glance pitch, and grahamite of the asphaltite family; the impsonites are called anchi-, epi-, meso-, and kata-impsonites. Subspecies are early or migrated wurtzilites, upper and lower gilsonites, the oxi(dized) variants, “resinic,” “asphaltenic,” and “mixed” subspecies. Misleading or proper names like “gilsonitic” asphalts, ingramite, liverite, tabbyite, and shungite should be used only locally.

Abstract Karl Gustav Bischof, professor of chemistry at the University of Bonn, wrote the influential pioneer Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology, published in 1854. In this he enunciated the idea that petroleum originated by the slow decomposition of organic matter: In the decomposition of vegetable substances there are formed, besides carburetted hydrogen, liquid and solid hydro-carbons, such as naphtha and petroleum or mineral oil, mineral tar, elaterite, naphthalite, ozokerite, etc. (Bischof, 1854, v. 1, p. 291; [History 2.16].)