The Oil Industry in Sękowa

In Skowa, the place Professor Aleksander Guterch was born, as well as in neighbouring localities Siary and Ropica Ruska (now Ropnica Grna), people had "always" been aware of the presence of oil.Rock oil, which comes from natural spills, often accompanied by exhalations of natural gas, has been observed in the Gorlice region for as long as its history goes.The evidence for the existence of oil deposits in the area comes from multiple historical sources: one of the earliest dates back to 1530, when Seweryn Bonar, treasurer of King Sigismund the Old, burgrave of Cracow and mayor of Biecz, while searching for gold in the village of Ropa under Chem Mount, came across oil that flooded his mine.Another historical message about oil dates back to the 17th century.In the treatise on Galicia, Antoni Schneider 2 wrote: "In Galicia, the existence of asphalt was known in the past in the area of Gorlice, Iwonicz, Lisk, Stara Sl; it had been utilized to cover roofs, even as far as Warsaw.And Adam Jastrzbski, a builder and musician of King Wadysaw IV, describing Warsaw as it was in 1643, mentions that the stones covering the roof of the Ossoliski Palace, in order to prevent harming it by snow and rain, were ditched with the earth tar.For this purpose, by distilling the light and volatile fractions, the so-called Jewish tar was made, which, by admixing sand, was transformed into asphalt and ooze."The presence of oil in the area is also reflected in numerous names of rivers, villages, and family names.For centuries, people of the Gorlice and Nowy Scz regions have used the fat material as an effective remedy against various human and animal diseases.They treated with it the throat diseases, wounds, and sores in humans, fasciolosis in sheep and pastern dermatitis in horses.Cobblers employed oil to soften leather; it was also used to treat wood, for firelighters, and finally as a lighting material in various types of candles.In the 1850s, Prince Stanisaw Jabonowski, one of the pioneers of the oil industry in Poland, developed his business and established an asphalt factory near his Kobylanka palace.Initially, he drew oil from the legendary oil wells owned by Jan Wybranowski in the village of Siary.