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Jan 1, 1543
first use of oil
The first record of Europeans using crude oil, however, was for the caulking of boats in 1543 -
Period: Jan 1, 1543 to
oil use
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first drilling of oil
Melrose, in Nacogdoches County, was the site in 1866 of the first drilled well to produce oil in Texas. -
first oil feild
In 1867, in the same area, Amory (Emory) Starr and Peyton F. Edwards brought in a well at Oil Springs. Other wells followed, and Nacogdoches County was the site of Texas’ first commercial oil field, pipeline, and effort to refine crude. Several thousand barrels of oil were produced there during these years. -
Spindletop, 1901
Jan. 10, 1901, is the most famous date in Texas petroleum history. This is the date that the great gusher erupted in the oil well being drilled at Spindletop, near Beaumont, by a mining engineer, Capt. A. F. Lucas. -
Offshore, 1908
The first offshore drilling was in shallow northern Galveston Bay, where the Goose Creek Field was discovered in 1908. Several dry holes followed, and the field was abandoned. But a gusher in 1916 created the real boom there.
