Although Natural Gas today is prevalent all around the world and is used for numerous purposes. Whether our homes or our cars. However there are a few things that are so interesting when you look back in time!!
It was around 1000 B.C. that a goat herdsman came across what looked like a ‘burning spring’, a flame rising from a fissure in the rock. The Greeks, believing it to be of divine origin, built a temple on the flame. However with time, these types of springs became prominent in the religions of India, Greece, and Persia.
Unable to explain where these fires came from, they were often regarded as divine, or supernatural. It wasn’t until about 600 B.C. that the Chinese discovered the potential to use these fires to their advantage. Finding places where gas was seeping to the surface, the Chinese formed crude pipelines out of bamboo shoots to transport the gas, where it was used to boil sea water, separating the salt and making it drinkable.
Below is mentioned a timeline with a few LANDMARKs in the life of Natural Gas.
600 BC The ancient Chinese were the first to discover and use natural gas.
100 AD The first recorded use of natural gas in the home was in Persia (now Iran).
1812 First gas company founded in London, England.
1943 Natural gas is liquefied for the first time in Cleveland, OH.
1966 The “Gas Industry Week” (June 13-19) was proclaimed
1974 Gas demand in India picked up with ONGC’s Bombay High
1984 GAIL was created to promote gas use and develop midstream and downstream gas infrastructure.
2013 GAIL made it to the FORBES Global 2000 List, AND the rest is HISTORY……..