Did Ancient China invent oil drilling?

In drilling for salt the Chinese as your illustration shows did come across natural gas and learned how to extract it and use it. read more

The First Oil Wells. The Chinese have used oil and gas for many centuries. There is no record of when Chinese began using natural gas, but clearly in Szechuan the local people were drilling down hundreds of feet into the earth to get natural gas and brine before the start of the Han Dynasty, before 400 B.C. read more

The three books’ themes are interrelated in a most entertaining way. But to get back to Salt, in one chapter an ancient salt producing industry involving sophisticated drilling techniques and coproduction of brine and natural gas in China’s Sichuan province, far pre-dating western efforts, is detailed. read more