Oil industry in the Carpathian area - an outline history, current state and development prospects

The article presents an outline history, current state and development prospects of oil industry of the Carpathian area in Poland as compared to the Carpathian petroleum province. Polish part of The Carpathian Flysch Belt is considered to be a cradle of oil industry, the beginnings of which are related to mass distillation of oil and its industrial extraction. After dynamic development at the turn of 19th and 20th centuries there was a period of regression, which lasts till the present day. It was related to the exhaustion of old deposits and lack of discovery of the new ones. The prospects of further development of the industry depend on identifying deeper beds of the Carpathian orogen and of eastern and southern part of the Carpathian Foredeep, and on the development of exploration and extraction methods of the so-called unconventional deposits of hydrocarbons.