The refining of crude petroleum owes its origin to the successful drilling of the first oil wells in Ontario, Canada, in 1858 and in Titusville, Pennsylvania, U.S., in 1859. Prior to that time, petroleum was available only in very small quantities from natural seepage of subsurface oil in various areas throughout the world. However, such limited availability restricted the uses for petroleum to medicinal and specialty purposes. With the discovery of “rock oil” in northwestern Pennsylvania, crude oil became available in sufficient quantity to inspire the development of larger-scale processing systems. The earliest refineries employed simple distillation units, or “stills,” to separate the various constituents of petroleum by heating the crude oil mixture in a vessel and condensing the resultant vapours into liquid fractions. Initially the primary product was kerosene, which proved to be a more abundant, cleaner-burning lamp oil of more consistent quality than whale oil or animal fat.

The lowest-boiling raw product from the still was “straight run” naphtha, a forerunner of unfinished gasoline (petrol). Its initial commercial application was primarily as a solvent. Higher-boiling materials were found to be effective as lubricants and fuel oils, but they were largely novelties at first.

The perfection of oil-drilling techniques quickly spread to Russia, and by 1890 refineries there were producing large quantities of kerosene and fuel oils. The development of the internal-combustion engine in the later years of the 19th century created a small market for crude naphtha. But the development of the automobile at the turn of the century sharply increased the demand for quality gasoline, and this finally provided a home for the petroleum fractions that were too volatile to be included in kerosene. As demand for automotive fuel rose, methods for continuous distillation of crude oil were developed.