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History of natural gas

  • The first natural gas reserves
    2000 BC

    The first natural gas reserves were discovered in Iran. It is thought that lightning set fire to the gas, revealing its existence to the ancient Persians, who believed that the continuously burning flames were ‘eternal fires’ set by the gods.

  • natural gas well was drilled in China
    125 BC

    The first known natural gas well was drilled in China, to depths of 150 metres. It is believed that the Chinese had known of the existence of natural gas since 900 BC. They used hollow bamboo stalks to drill for and transport the gas.

  • natural gas was discovered in England
    1659

    Natural gas was discovered in England, but there was no way to transport it from reserves, so it played a much less prominent role in industrial development than oil, coal and their derivatives. The first uses of piped gas date to the late 1700s or early 1800s, when gas obtained from coal was used for lighting street lamps. This led to the gas being referred to as ‘town gas’.

  • Paris and London installed street lighting systems
    1815

    Some neighbourhoods in Paris and London installed street lighting systems that used manufactured gas. The gas was soon introduced in Spain.

  • Natural gas was transported in a small town in New York
    1821

    Natural gas was transported in a small town in New York through a small-diameter copper pipe to consumers, who used it mostly for lighting. However, it wasn’t until 1890 that an important breakthrough in the transport of gas took place: leak-proof pipeline couplings were invented, allowing gas to travel up to 150 km from a supply source.

  • first large-scale gas transmission systems
    1927

    Pipeline technology improved, and the first large-scale gas transmission systems (gas pipelines) were constructed in the United States, with pipes with diameters of more than 51 cm that stretched up to 320 km. Construction began on the longest pipeline ever built for transporting natural gas, the Northern Lights Pipeline, in 1970. The 5470-km-long pipeline cuts across the Ural Mountains, linking Eastern Europe and Siberia.

  • Spain’s natural gas transport
    Nowadays

    Today, Spain’s natural gas transport and distribution networks are over 35,000 km long, and more than 2,350 billion cubic metres of the gas are used worldwide per year. There are over 160,000 Bcm of proved natural gas reserves.