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Jun 2, 1543
n 1543, a Spanish expedition found oil floating on the surface of the water along the Texas coast and used it to caulk their boats.2
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oil was discovered in America
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on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania, Edwin L. Drake drilled down 69 feet and struck oil, creating the nation’s first oil well.
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an oil well on a small hill called Spindletop near Beaumont created a worldwide sensation when it came in with such explosive force that it blew six tons of drill pipe, mud, rocks and crude oil several hundred feet into the air.
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2006 employed 3.1 percent of the state’s workforce and paid that workforce $30.6 billion – 6.9 percent of all wages.1