Energy · c. 100 BCE

Sichuan gas wells

Chinese brine drillers pipe natural gas through bamboo to boil salt.

In Sichuan, percussion-drilled wells for salt brine also struck natural gas, which was carried in bamboo pipelines and burned under evaporating pans by the Han dynasty. Chinese cable-tool drilling later reached depths of over 1,000 m, centuries before the Western oil industry.

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