Petroleum exploration is a very old pursuit, as the preceding quotation illustrates. The Bible contains many references to the use of pitch or asphalt collected from the natural seepages with which the Middle East abounds. Herodotus, writing in about 450 BC, described oil seeps in Carthage (Tunisia) and the Greek island Zachynthus (Herodotus, c. 450 BC). He gave details of oil extraction from wells near Ardericca in modern Iran, although the wells could not have been very deep because fluid was extracted in a wineskin on the end of a long pole mounted on a fulcrum.

The fascination of petroleum geology lies both in its complexity and in its importance to society. There is still much that we do not understand; and there is much to learn if remaining undiscovered reserves of oil and gas are to be found economically. It is also good geology with a healthy practical component. The great advances in geological thought and understanding in the 19th Century were based largely on the construction of coal mines, railways and canals. But this was almost two-dimensional geology of the land, bounded by the low-tide line. In the last 30 years or so, geology has moved offshore onto the continental shelves and ocean floors, largely under the stimulus of petroleum exploration, and with it has grown a great wealth of geological information. <...>

The purpose of this short contribution is to provide an overview of our current state of knowledge of Africa's petroleum systems as an introduction to the detailed volume accounts that follow. Toward that end we introduce a set of maps on a supplementary CD compiled by Purdy as part of a confidential report provided to industry subscribers some ten years ago. The maps include subsurface as well as surface structural information but, because of their vintage, have not taken account of more recent information. Nonetheless, the regional geological framework apparent on the maps has not changed and, in that sense, the maps are as relevant today as when they were first compiled. Moreover the maps serve as a useful building block on which more recently acquired exploration data can be readily added by others using facilitating computer programs. <...>

Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, Italian, and Allied military control after the Second World War. There was little organised scientific activity before the annexation of Libya by Italy in 1911, although a number of expeditions, some with scientific interests, passed through Libya in the 19th century. The main objective of these expeditions, mostly organised by the London-based African Association, was to explore the region southwards from Murzuq to Timbuktu, determine the course of the Niger River and assess the commercial potential of the area. The earliest of these expeditions was undertaken by Friedrich Hornemann who travelled with a camel caravan from Egypt into Libya passing through the oases of Siwa and Awjilah, and then across the Haruj al Aswad to Murzuq, and subsequently to Tripoli.