Source: Fuel Fix | Ryan Maye Handy | June 21, 2017

There was a time when Texas, one of the predominant oil and gas producers in the world, produced close nothing at all. 

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The earliest records of Texas' oil production were the the late 19th century -- before the advent of the automobile, which later became the primary use of oil and gasoline. Back then, crude oil might have been used as a lubricator for equipment, said Susan Rhyne, the assistant director of central records for the Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator.

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The earliest reference to oil production, that Rhyne knows of, is in a U.S. Geological Survey published  in 1894.  The USGS, which published annual reports on mineral resources around the country, recorded 48 barrels of oil produced in Texas in 1889. By 1894, that number had risen to 60 barrels.

A few years later, in January 1901, the Spindletop well in Beaumont began to gush oil and triggered the Texas oil boom.

Today, West Texas' prolific Permian basin produces around 2.5 million barrels a day. 

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