This chapter presents historical remarks and a quick review of knowledge of the occurrence and use of bituminous raw materials in the Carpathians. The most important data on the use of hydrocarbons in the Carpathians in the literature from the 16th century, and on the development of its use, exploration, and exploitation date from the beginning of 19th century. In the laboratories of Lvov and Gorlice, Ignacy Lukasiewicz, the founding father of the Polish oil industry, distilled his first amounts of kerosene and other oil-derivative products. Public lighting of kerosene lamps in a Lvov hospital occurred on July 31, 1853. This date was generally recognized as the beginning of the national oil industry. Also in 1854, the first street kerosene lamp was lit up in Gorlice.

These two events showed how important the research of this raw material is. Several natural oil seeps concentrated on the surface signalled the beginning of discoveries of many shallow oil deposits, starting from Stary Sacz, Gorlice, Krosno, Sanok, Sambor, Drohobych, Nadwornaya, Bogorodchany, Kossovo, and going all the way to the Romanian Carpathian Mountains.

In this chapter, dynamic development of the petroleum industry from the second half of the 19th century up to the beginning of World War II is also presented, concentrating on gradual activities of many oil companies in the Polish part of the Carpathians. At that time, new drilling and exploratory technologies and oil-distillation processes were developed, causing the growth of the oil industry in the Carpathians and in many countries worldwide.