This is where the first "gas" (oil processing plants) appeared. They were, in fact, simple craft workshops, rudimentary equipped, using a method similar to distilling alcohol in peasant boilers.

Interestingly, until 1860, the main oil exploiters were free peasants, called fountains, 'baiesi' or gravesmen, names coming directly from their occupations.

After 1860, however, when the exploitation of "black gold" began to require ever more important capital, the peasants' role declined in favor of the owners of rich oilfields.

The oldest mention of the existence and exploitation of oil in Romania refers to the locality of Lucăceşti, today a part of Moinesti, on the Tazlău Salt Valley.

The first petroleum distilleries in the country are mentioned in the first half of the nineteenth century in Găzărie, Moineşti district.

The first oil well in Romania (in 1861), which is also the first commercial oil well in the world, was drilled into the oil basin of Moldova. In Moinesti was installed the fourth largest refinery in the country (1923).

A document coming from the chancellery of Ilias and Stephen, the sons and descendants of the throne of Alexander the Good, recalled on October 4, 1440, the village of "Lacaceşti on Tazlăul Sărat, at the foot of the Păcăru", the Agerpres agency reports.

After this date, the documentary information that signals the presence of "fuel oil" in Moldova is multiplying.

In 1646, the oil firing in Bacău county took the attention of foreign monk Bandini, who left us a detailed description of them, writes the history in the book "A History of Romanian Oil."

By the middle of the nineteenth century, there was an increase in demand for oil as a result of the increase in lamp consumption, a by-product obtained by distilling crude oil.

This derivative soon became widely used, at first for the public lighting, then for the household. Starting in 1840, the first distilleries (Lucăceşti-Bacau) were built, in fact small workshops where the processing of oil was made in rudimentary boilers.

In 1938, the publication "The Science of Petroleum" (Oxford University Press) attests to the fact that Romania was the first country in the world to officially register oil production (275 tonnes in 1857).

The following countries were: the US (1859), Italy (1860), Canada (1862), Russia (1863).

After 1900, Romania becomes the first country in the world to export gasoline and the largest oil producer in Europe. In 1914 there were 104 oil companies set up in Romania. In 1937, Romania ranks 7th in the world on world oil reserves.