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The 1850s was an important decade for the oil industry, especially in Europe. In 1851, James 'Paraffin' Young began to retort oil from Carboniferous oil shales in the Midland Valley of Scotland. Two years later, oil from pits at Bóbrka in SE Poland was distilled by Lukasiewicz and used for fuelling oil lamps in Lvov. At Wietze, Germany, a well at a site chosen geologically by Prof. Hunaeus of the Polytechnisches Schule, Hannover (now Hannover University), found oil in 1858/1859 rather than the expected coal; all this just before the generally accepted start of the modern oil industry when 'Col.' Drake found oil at Titusville in Pennsylvania later in 1859.
A century later in the Netherlands, the size of a gigantic 1959 gas discovery was realised only 4 years later when an earlier well was deepened to the Rotliegend and found a 180 m gas column. The dune bedding dipped to the west, indicating an extension of the reservoir under the North Sea; the first gas discovery in 1965 was at West Sole in UK waters. All UK gas had to be sold to the Government, and at a much poorer price for later gas finds. This led to the northward migration of seismic ships to the Central & Northern North Sea where oil dominated exploration for the next 20 years.
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