All in a lifetime

The film marks the 75th. Anniversary of the Esso Petroleum Company and surveys the progress of the oil industry from 1888 to the present day. Within a lifetime, the oil industry has revolutionised our habits and daily life. Historical black and white film shows the first methods of exploration and drilling, then the film pursues oil’s more modern ramifications ranging from the development of the jet engine to the latest oilfields; from laboratory research to motorways; from oil-fired industries to the new world of petrochemicals.