Texas produces a staggering amount of oil. In 2023, the state pumped roughly 5.7 million barrels of oil every single day. That number is so large it can be hard to picture. To put it in perspective, that is more oil than Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, or Kuwait produces in a day. Texas is not just the biggest oil-producing state in the U.S. — it is one of the biggest oil producers in the world.
What Is a Barrel of Oil?
A barrel is the standard unit used to measure oil. One barrel equals 42 U.S. gallons. That is about the size of a large trash can. The 42-gallon barrel standard dates back to the early 1860s, when oil was first being traded in Pennsylvania. Producers used wooden barrels to ship oil, and 42 gallons became the accepted size. The unit stuck, even though oil stopped being shipped in actual barrels long ago. Today, oil moves through pipelines and tanker ships, but everyone still counts it in barrels.
How Does Texas Compare to the Rest of the U.S.?
The United States as a whole produces about 13 to 14 million barrels of oil per day. Texas accounts for roughly 40 percent of that total. No other state is close. New Mexico is second, at about 1.8 million barrels per day. North Dakota is third, at about 1.1 million barrels per day. Texas produces more oil than the next five states combined.
How Much Has Texas Produced in Total?
Texas has been producing oil since 1859. That was the year the first recorded commercial oil well was drilled near Oil Springs in Nacogdoches County. Since then, Texas has produced more than 75 billion barrels of oil. That is a cumulative total built up over more than 160 years. Putting it in everyday terms: at 42 gallons per barrel, 75 billion barrels is over 3 trillion gallons of oil from Texas soil alone.
Where Does All This Oil Come From?
Most of Texas's oil comes from a few key areas. The Permian Basin in West Texas is by far the biggest source. It produces more than 6 million barrels per day on its own — that includes production in the nearby New Mexico portion. The Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas produces about 1.1 million barrels per day. The rest comes from older fields scattered across the state, from the Gulf Coast to East Texas and the Panhandle.
What Drives So Much Production?
Two big changes in technology made today's huge output possible. The first is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. This is a process that pumps high-pressure liquid into rock to crack it open and release trapped oil. The second is horizontal drilling. Instead of drilling straight down, drillers now steer the drill bit sideways through the rock for a mile or more. These two methods together unlocked billions of barrels of oil that was trapped in tight shale rock. Before fracking and horizontal drilling, that oil was considered unrecoverable.
Is Production Growing or Declining?
Production has grown dramatically over the past 15 years. In 2010, Texas produced about 1.1 million barrels per day. By 2019 it had reached 5.4 million. There was a dip in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a price crash. But production rebounded quickly. By 2023, Texas set new records. The Railroad Commission publishes updated production numbers every month. ScoutTickets.io tracks those numbers to help you spot where activity is growing.