OLEH MYKULYCH,
PhD in History,
Corresponding Member
of Ukrainian Petroleum Academy

Throughout the world from times immemorial mankind has been aware of the bitumen (asphalt) and oil, which was used for various economic, medical, religious and other purposes.
In the territory of Ukraine, namely in Eastern Galicia, in the Ciscarpathian region and the Carpathians (present-day Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts) it was also long ago known about oil, bitumen and ozocerite which at first were used by local residents in everyday life, and later - for trade.

Starting from the 10th century, Galicia lands were part of Kievan Rus’ as separate principalities, and starting from the 12th century the lands of Galicia and Galicia-Volyn principality and kingdom, either. In 1340, they were captured by Poland and were under the rule of Polish and Hungarian princes and kings. In 1387, after the Polish annexation, the Galician land finally became part of the possessions belonging to the Polish crown as the Russian kingdom or the Russian land. Since 1432, these territories constituted the Russian province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It consisted of five lands (Lviv, Peremyshl, Syanitska, Galitska and Kholmska), and the administrative center of the province was Lviv. At the beginning of the 16th century Peremyshl, Sambir, Drogobych and Stryi counties were formed on Peremyshl land. Their territorial basis was an old rural municipality. In addition, there were three tax districts, namely Zasyansky, Mezhsiansko-Dnestrovsky and Zadnestrovsky. During the first division of Rzeczpospolita in 1772, the territory of Galicia was annexed to the Austrian Empire, and in 1867-1918 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
According to some researchers, referring to the information from the annals, as early as in the second half of the 13th century in Galicia people were aware of oil seepages. Records thereof can be found in the chronicles of a Polish historian and priest Jan Długosz (1415-1480). Residents of the Carpathians and Ciscarpathian region stroke oil during exploration and production of salt springs and as a result of numerous natural seepages to the surface of the earth - banks of rivers, streams and marshes. It was used for medical purposes: skin diseases, rheumatism, tuberculosis; for various economic needs - preservation of objects, construction, leather dressing, mill wheels lubrication, lighting, but most often for lubrication of axles in wheeled carts.
In Galicia, oil was called oil brine, oil, earth oil, rock oil, clay oil, kipyachka, porkura, petrol, petroleum, and the most common name for oil was brine (ropa). This is evidenced by numerous toponyms and geographical names of cities, villages, farms, rivers, streams, mountains, pastures and various other microtoponyms - Ropa, Ropiany, Ropyanka, Ropishche, Ropianik, Ropnik, Ropavske, Ropinka, Ropeniy, Ropenets, Ropny, Ropya, Rypyana, Ripchanka, Ripchitsy, Repnev, Rypyanoe, Ripno, Repyanka, Repky, Repnik, Ropovskoye, Ropitsa Russkaya, Ropishche, Ropchitsy, Old Ropa, Black Ropa and others. It is believed that most of these toponyms appeared in the 15-17th centuries. Natural oil seepages in the modern city of Borislav in the Lviv region have also been known since ancient times. Local population used it as a remedy against some skin diseases, against the plague, and also for the production of wheel dressing.
The first reliable written evidence of surface oil seepages in the Carpathian region was published by a medieval scholar, Rusyn by origin, Stefan Falimir from Rus’. Back in 1484 he composed a book of herbs-remedies (herbarium of medicinal plants) «On potions and their effects,» («O ziołach i o mocy ich») which was published in Kraków in 1534 by Florian Ungler’s printing press. This work is considered to be one of the first in Europe. In the part titled «Petroleum» within the section «How to apply oils in treatment» («jako oleyki sprawować ku leczeniu»), the author gives information about oil - «this oil that flows from stones» («jest to oley, którzy idzie z kamienia»), it is delicate, namely light-colored («jest on subtelny, zwłaszcza biały»). He also mentions the areas of its use as a medicine. Falimir was a physician at the court of Jan Tęnczyński, the governor of Podolsky province, who lived in Krasnik above the river San. Judging by the fact that the book tells about medicinal properties of oil, we can assume that Stefan Falimir was exactly from Ciscarpahian region that is why it went about oil from these particular remote areas, although we do not know the details of his biography.
There is interesting historical information stating that in 1550 the city of Drohobych, just like the city of Krosno (present-day Poland), had a royal privilege to light its streets with rock (earth) oil (i.e. oil), mixed with flaxseed oil. It was also used as a lubricant for wheels in carts and as a therapeutic ointment. This documentary evidence, according to German professors E. Engler and G. von Hyfer, were kept in the Franciscan monastery of Krosno. Unfortunately, none of these documents have survived to our days, they apparently burned down during a fire in the church that took place in 1872.
Ieronim Spichinsky wrote about the healing properties of oil in his book titled «O ziołach tutecznych i zamorskich», published in Kraków in 1542 and 1556. And in 1568 the paper by Martin Sennik was published under the title «Herbarz, to jest ziół tutejszych, postronnych i zamorskich opisanie». It also points to the therapeutic properties of oil.
At that time, Galicia was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which was guided by old Piastov mining and legal norms. According to these norms, the right to produce natural resources belonged exclusively to the state-king (the so-called «regalia») until 1573, i.е. before accepting the decision of elective Seym upon Kamionną. And only in 1576, Polish King Stefan Batory finally legalized (under the so-called pacta conventa) the exclusive right of the gentry to produce minerals on their own lands, thereby eliminating the last relics of the concept of «regalia» (state monopoly) in the aspect of old mining regulations.
Since then, in the literature and archival sources, we can find even more information about exploration, industrial production, processing and use of oil, asphalt, bitumen, ozocerite (earth wax) and other minerals. In Kraków printing house of Lazar, in July 1578, a book by the court physician, a secretary of the Polish king Stefan Batory, Doctor of Medicine Wojciech Oczko (1537-1599), titled «Thermal waters» («Cieplice»), was published. This work for the first time made a description of the sources of mineral waters known at that time in Poland and their wide application in medicine was indicated. There we can find valuable evidence that the inhabitants of Drohobych and its vicinity consumed water from salt springs and oily ropa calling it «very useful». In the vicinity of Drohobych, the so-called galloon medicinal water was used. In 1591, Szlyachtichi Buchatsky concluded an agreement on joint exploration activities with regard to galloon, ropa, gold and other minerals.
Information about bitumen used not only for medicinal purposes, but also for making candles from earth wax (ozocerite), can be found in the book published in 1595 by a botanist, a doctor and a professor of the Kraków Academy Martin from Ugendov (? -1573) in his book titled «Herbarz polski, to jest o przyrodzeniu ziół i drzew rozmaitych i innych rzeczy do lekarstw należących księgi dwoje» published in 1595. In section 13, titled «Asphalt, bitumen and Jewish bitumen,» the author describes liquid ropa as «glue that flows out of the mountains», which is collected in wells, as well as solid waxes and asphalts, used for making candles «in Cherkassiya». This information was spread around the world by Jacques Esprinhard (1573-1604), a French traveller of that time.
The property description dated 1616 belonging to the deceased Lviv pharmacist Jan Kilianovich is preserved in the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine situated in Lviv. Among the list of pharmacy products we can find black wax (apparently, ozocerite). Thus, we can conclude that ozocerite was also used for medical purposes.
Valuable evidence of Ciscarpathian oil was given by a Lvivite, a naturalist, a philosopher and poet, a city councilor, a doctor, a professor of medicine Erasmus Syxt (around 1570-1635) in his book titled «O cieplicach we Skle, ksiąg troie». This was one of the first balneological papers which was published in 1617 in the printing house of Zamoyskaya Academy, and was reissued in 1780 in Warsaw. The author gives a description of the areas where oil was produced, cites various methods of crude oil production and processing, explains the design of a device employed for petroleum distillation, oil use for medical purposes, in particular for the treatment of a skin disease called scabies. He was the first to point out that in the first decades of the 17th century in the vicinity of the city of Drohobych, special wells for oil exploration were dug, and oil was produced and distilled. There we read «… drugie klej / albo ropę / jako ją nazywają ci którzy za Drohobycza kopają tę ropę podobną coś do petroleo przewoźnemu i na takowesz choroby jest pożyteczna». Also, he was almost the first in history who described the process of this oil distillation. Despite primitiveness of the described equipment, it already had all necessary components including a boiler, a heater, a refrigerator - it was plausible that the installations for making moonshine were taken as a basis. Judging from how detailed the description was, the author had, apparently, himself carried out this process.
Very heavy, paraffin oil from the vicinity of Staraya Sol’ and Smolnitsy until the end of the XIXth century was called asphalt. By 1862, there had been an asphalt factory established and functioning in Solyanovatka, where oil was supplied by the burghers of Staraya Sol’ from wells-mines. Since 1620, it was used for tarring roofs, in 1643, it covered the Ossoliński Palace in Warsaw. Jarzemski, the builder and musician of the Polish king Vladislav IV remembered these facts describing the Ossoliński Palace in Warsaw “…the stones covering the roof of this house are coated with earth tar, so that snow and rain could not destroy it” («że kamienie pokrywające dach tego budynku, aby śnieg i deszcz nie szkodził, smołą ziemną były dychtowane»).
In 1632, the book titled «Thaumatographia naturalia in X classes distincta» was published by a doctor, a zoologist, a botanist, a mineralogist, a Scot by birth John Johnson (1603-1675) in Amsterdam (the Netherlands). He gives a lot of information about oil, including its exploration in the vicinity of the cities of Drohobych and Krosno. And in 1684, a doctor whose name was Konrad Archi in his essay titled «Acta Eruditorum» describes the fire at an oil spring near Krosno, caused by a thunderbolt.
Professor of the Vilensky Academy, a Jesuit Wojciech Tilkowsky in his paper titled «Phisica curiosa», published in 1669 and 1682 (1695) in the city of Olivier near Gdansk, recalls the sources of oil ropa and earth gas in Galicia. In particular, he uses the definitions: asphalt, bitumen and petroleum. In addition, he reports that fires were frequent where oil wells and seepages of terrestrial gas occurred, which witnesses in favor of the content of a large amount of bitumen. He also writes that «... local peasants collect ropa that floats on the surface of water like fat, and use it to lubricate axes of their carts» instead of wood tar, and he calls asphalt «pix native» (natural tar).
It is also worthwhile to recall Jan Friedwalski’s little-known work under the title «Mineralogia», published in 1717 in Cluj (Romania). In this original work we can see the state of chemical knowledge of that time. Noteworthy is the report on the method of oil ropa distillation. The author characterizes ropa as a «sulphurous substance». Oil is a substance similar to ropa but more liquid and transparent, flammable (long burning) and is the lightest part of bitumen obtained during distillation.
A medieval Catholic priest, a Jesuit and a naturalist Gabriel Jonziński (1664-1737), in 1721 in the town of Sandomire published the paper titled «Historia naturalis curiosa Regni Poloniae», and in 1742 in Gdansk, after his death his work was re-published and expanded under the title «Acuarium historiae Naturalis Regni Poloniae». In these books the author tells about the location of oil and gas wells in Galicia up to Pokuttya - near Rungur and near Ropyanka. He calls oil «aqua bituminosa». In Ciscarpathian, he points to oil production in the village Yasenitsy Solnye, around the town of Leska, the city of Drohobych and the village of Stebnik, oil production from wells and its distillation. It is interesting that, according to the author, the source of oil was then also known in the territory of the town of Kamenets, «between the Polish Gates and the Castle.» The author describes ropa production performed with the help of wooden scoops, its further settling from water, storage in barrels, and use as a lubricant for wheels, as a medicine, especially with frostbites, and also as a substitute for oil in lamps. He draws the attention to the unpleasant smell that oil emits. In this second edition, he mentions that in Krosno crude oil ropa is purified by means of distillation. G. Zhonchinsky also mentions earth wax describing it as «sticky and dark.»
In 1726, in the Drohobych Magistrate Court the case about a fight between Ivan Gribovsky and Stepan Kovalev, who were selling repnitsya from the cart, was heard. And at the request of Gosefovich, the representatives of the Drohobych Magistrate evaluated two old carts. The first one had a large barrel, from which ropa flowed, the second one was for salt. They were valued at 16 zł. From this information it can be seen that the oil ropa was delivered in considerable quantities.
Information about oil ropa can be found in «Kalendarzu polskim and ruskim na rok 1753, 1757» by Yakub Negovetsky, a professor of Kraków University. He writes about «oil from Rungur village on Pokuttya that is earth ropa which is collected by spoons and taken for gastric diseases.» In the calendar dated 1768 by Stanislav Duńczewski we can also find references to oil ropa. Already back in 1770 the population of Sloboda Rungurskaya village used oil ropa to lubricate carts. And in 1771 in the same village during the deepening of a salt well oil was discovered and it was being produced for more than 100 years. The villagers drew oil ropa from a well dug to the depth of 12 sazhens (ca 21 m) and used it as a lubricant for cart axes and as a remedy for animal diseases.
In the other village called Nebyliv, former Kalush district (present-day Rozhnyatovsky district of Ivano-Frankivsk region) oil ropa was produced. In 1771, the village, besides other feudal duties, was to give 14 buckets of ropa from each household. It was also noted here that wholesalers had to give to Kalozshky village headmen 15 buckets of ropa, or pay 4 zł per bucket.
On September 4, 1774, one of Austrian official-inspectors also mentioned oil ropa in the list of industrial goods that were exported from the city of Drohobych to Podillya and Ukraine. After all, at that time the inhabitants of Drohobych, including the Jews, were engaged into the transportation and trade of salt and oil which was used as wheel dressing and as medicine for inflammatory processes.
In the years 1781-1782 in Warsaw, a compilation work - a two-volume textbook on mineralogy and geology titled «Rzeczy koralnych osobliwe zdatniejszych szukanie, poznanie and zażycie» - was published by a well-known naturalist from Podlasie, Vilensky Doctor of Philosophy and Free Sciences, a Catholic priest Jan Krzysztof Kluk (1739 -1796). It describes a number of areas where seepages of oil ropa were situated as well as ways of its production. It divides the ropa into liquid earth oils: oil, earth oil, tar, fat, balsam, and thick earth fats: Jewish resin, gagatek, amber, ambra, kopal. In the area of Rungura and Ropyanka he points out the seepages of earth lard (wax) and the possibility of its utilization for lighting, probably in the form of candles, because the author distinguishes «earth oil, petroleum», which was produced in the Caucasus near Baku.
In 1783 the book titled «Historia naturalna Królestwa Polskiego czyli zbiór krótki przez alfabet ułożony zwierząt, roslin and minerałów» written by the Catholic priest Remigush Ładowskiego was published. It also contains mentionings of oil ropa in Galicia.
At the end of 18th century oil ropa was produced already in Ropnoye village, former Dolinsky district, present-day Rozhnyatovsky district of Ivano-Frankivsk region. In Ropnoye in 1786 a pit-well was dug for of oil ropa production.
Iosif Ignat Martynovich (1755-1795), a Croatian by nationality, but a Hungarian by education and beliefs was a Professor of Physics of Lviv University in 1783-1791. His main work is considered to be «Course of Experimental Physics», which was published in three volumes in Lviv in 1788. He was also interested in oil ropa produced near the city of Kalush, he was able to determine its properties, including specific gravity of its individual fractions obtained as a result of distillation, and even offered practical application which lied in the preservation of wood, for the leather currying, as a medicine against skin diseases in sheep. He also received and described a heavy residue from oil distillation, namely bitumen. The results of his research were published in a chemical journal, published in 1791, in an article entitled «Chemische Untersuchungen des Galizischen Bergöls». I. Martynovich can be rightly considered one of the pioneering researchers of our oil.
However, the greatest attention should be paid to the four-volume work written by Baltasar Hacquet (1739-1815), a naturalist, Professor of Lviv and Kraków Universities which was published in separate issues in Nuremberg in 1790-1796. A particularly valuable study of Ukrainian lands is contained in the third volume of his book, reflecting the travels of the scientist between 1791 and 1793 and it is fully devoted to the study of the Ukrainian Carpathians and Eastern Galicia. In particular, the study on the geological structure of salt and oil deposits conducted during a new route along Boykivshchina and the Subcarpathians of Western Galicia deserves attention. Their success influenced the destiny of the two scientific hypotheses put forward by the scientist, namely, on the continuity of salt springs and salt deposits along the entire range of the Northern Carpathians from Wieliczka to Bukovina, as well as about their proximity to oil fields.
Subsequently, scientist’s opinion about the presence of so called combustible shales and minerals in the territory of Boykivshchina was confirmed. They were considered to be the determining symptom of its oil content. B. Hacquet encountered such shales for the first time while researching the mine located in Mizune village.
He came across the traces of another bitumen-type mineral, namely brown-black limestone, during a survey of another mine located in Smolny village. This limestone, according to K. Linnaeus is «bitumen montibus», and according to B. Hacquet it is «flammable, burns with a brown-red flame and differs from mountain tar», that is from oil. Hardened bituminous minerals of this region, according to the scientist, interlay alternately with sandstones and limestones, and their presence «undoubtedly indicates that in the course of time oil deposits will also appear here, which will be discovered accidentally.» And in one of the localities, namely in Kvashenitsi village near the town of Dolny Ustryky, near the town of Lesok, he came across a primitive oil production. There oil was mixed with earth and used to lubricate wheel axles in carts. He bought a “pound” of this mixture for later surveys to be conducted in Lviv. However, it is not known whether the scientist conducted these experiments on his return home. The scientist came across oil production in another village in the Western Carpathian region, namely, in the Venglivtsi village near the town of Krosno. Here, oil was seeping to the surface of the water in a pit dug in the garden of one of village farms. It was also used to lubricate the axles, but was produced only in quantities necessary to meet the village needs.
Oil seepages were also mentioned by the scientist in connection with the localities east of Dobromil in the town of Staraya Sol and near Smolnaya village, where he found brown-black earth resin, which was processed into the form of candles and burned with a brown-red flame.
However, industrial and the highest level of oil production in Galicia was observed by the scientist in Drohobych region in Naguevichi village which he visited as far back as 1787 during a preliminary survey of salt-mines in Boykovsky foothills. A detailed description presented by him shows that production was much more intensive there than in the mentioned villages. According to the scientist, this was due to great demand for oil to lubricate axles in carts in this region, where carts were entirely wooden, without iron parts.
There, oil was extracted from several pits dug 2-3 sazhens deep (4-6 m) filled with water, on the surface of which oil constantly floated up. With tools resembling rakes the workers were stirring oil ropa on the water surface to make it thicken, from there it was scooped out into smaller earth mines, where it would sit for water to separate. After light gasoline fractions would evaporate, valuable thick smear would remain. It was used as wheel dressing for carts, it was then collected into barrels for sale. A quart of oil cost five kreuzers on the spot. Pits themselves were quite deep, but they were neither fortified nor equipped, so there were cases of soil collapses which buried workers under them. At that time, 15 to 20 permanent workers were engaged into this business in the village. They earned eight kreuzers per day at best.
In the years 1791-1792 about 6900 liters of oil were produced annually. It was used for domestic needs, as well as for cattle treatment during epidemics (carbuncle). This was noted by B. Hacquet in his descriptions of Hutsul’shchina. Regarding the origin of oil, Hacquet suggests that it could be formed as a result of decomposition of the remains of marine animals and plants, and earth tar and asphalt were formed by means of oil thickening. He associates oil seepages with salt deposits formed during sea water evaporation which once occupied northern Galician plains and reached the Carpathians. Thus, in his views B. Hacquet is, to a certain extent, a precursor of the organic theory of oil origin. Hacquet’s attempts to bind the origin of oil to amber deposits are also interesting. In 1810, in response to the proposal initiated by Aloyzi Rafal Estreicher, the University of Kraków purchased a collection of minerals from the University of Lviv. These minerals were assembled and ordered by Professor Hacquet, numbering 4,050 positions, among which was also asphalt from Pokuttya.
Purified oil, which at that time was used to treat rheumatism, skin diseases and other ailments, was recommended by Austrian pharmacology in 1790, and was also used in pharmaceutical veterinary medicine. Among these medicines were such varieties of rock oil as «Oleum petrae rubrum» (red rock oil), «Oleum petrae album» (white rock oil) or «Oleum petrae rectificatum» (refined rock oil), and which were delivered to pharmacies from Italy. And before 1880 it was a drug, used for medicinal purposes