The World's First Oil Well Was Drilled in 1847 in Azerbaijan: How Baku Dominated 90% of Global Production

The World’s First Oil Well Was Drilled in 1847 in Azerbaijan: How Baku Dominated 90% of Global Production

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 10/04/2025 at 17:10

Primeiro poço de petróleo do mundo foi perfurado em Baku (1847), dominando 90% da produção global. Spindletop (1901), nos EUA, revolucionou a indústria com 100 mil barris/dia.

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Before the Texan Boom of 1901, Baku extracted oil for lighting kerosene. Spindletop, in the USA, gushed 100 thousand barrels/day and revolutionized the industry.

The first oil well in the world was drilled in 1847 in Baku, present-day Azerbaijan, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The region produced 90% of global oil in 1860, supplying the demand for kerosene. But in 1901, in Texas, history changed: the Spindletop well gushed 100 thousand barrels/day, catapulting the USA to world leadership and starting the automobile era.

Baku: First Oil Well in the World

In 1847, Baku was already extracting oil from surface reserves to produce kerosene, used in lamps. With rudimentary techniques, the region peaked at 24 thousand barrels/year in the 1860s. Massive exploration attracted European investors, including the Nobel brothers, who modernized the infrastructure. Today, Baku remains relevant as a natural gas hub.

Spindletop (1901): The Well That Gushed for 9 Days and Changed the World

This well in Spindletop alone produced 100,000 barrels/day, much more than the rest of the world combined. It was the real starting point for the oil era, from automobiles to gasoline and the history of the USA.

In January 1901, engineer Anthony Lucas drilled a well in Spindletop, Texas, using an innovative solution: mud casing to stabilize the walls. At a depth of 400 meters, the oil gushed to a height of 25 meters, flowing at a rate of 100 thousand barrels/day — more than the entire global production at the time. The accident led to the first “Christmas tree” (pressure control system), which is still a standard today.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Techniques of 1847 vs. 1901: The Evolution of Drilling

The first oil well in the world in Baku used manual excavation, limited to a few dozen meters. Spindletop, on the other hand, introduced:

Diamond rotary bits;
Bentonite mud casing;
Real-time pressure control.

Baku and Spindletop are milestones of the oil era. While Azerbaijan initiated commercial exploration, Texas scaled it to industrial levels. Today, both regions symbolize the energy transition: Baku invests in gas, while Texas invests in shale oil.

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Nelson Soares

#131194

13/04/2025 08:12

Sempre questionei a propaganda de que o Coronel Drake tivesse a fama de perfurar o primeiro poço comercial, numa tentativa clara de ofuscar a histórica produção de Baku, que já vinha desde o século 12, segundo relatos de viagem de Marco Polo. Dizer que a produção mundial de petróleo começou nos Estados Unidos da América é mais uma de tantas apropriações indevidas.

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The World’s First Oil Well Was Drilled in 1847 in Azerbaijan: How Baku Dominated 90% of Global Production

Before the Texan Boom of 1901, Baku extracted oil for lighting kerosene. Spindletop, in the USA, gushed 100 thousand barrels/day and revolutionized the industry.

Baku: First Oil Well in the World

Spindletop (1901): The Well That Gushed for 9 Days and Changed the World

Techniques of 1847 vs. 1901: The Evolution of Drilling

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The World’s First Oil Well Was Drilled in 1847 in Azerbaijan: How Baku Dominated 90% of Global Production

Before the Texan Boom of 1901, Baku extracted oil for lighting kerosene. Spindletop, in the USA, gushed 100 thousand barrels/day and revolutionized the industry.

Baku: First Oil Well in the World

Spindletop (1901): The Well That Gushed for 9 Days and Changed the World

Techniques of 1847 vs. 1901: The Evolution of Drilling

The Soviet Union spent 22 years drilling into the Earth’s crust and reached a depth of 12,262 meters — they found water where it was thought impossible, hydrogen bubbling from the rock, granite that is 2.7 billion years old, and temperatures of 180 degrees that melted the drill bits.

Egypt wants to draw 10 million cubic meters of water from the Nile per day into the desert, irrigate a new agricultural frontier, and build a city where there is currently only sand.

Ethiopia has banned gasoline and diesel cars, placed over a hundred silent electric buses on the streets of Addis Ababa, and now aims for half a million electric vehicles by 2030, all powered by Africa’s largest dam and a courage that few countries have shown.

BRICS is preparing a payment system inspired by the Brazilian PIX that will allow direct transactions between countries using national digital currencies without relying on the dollar or Western banks as intermediaries.

Stored for over 100 years, the first underwater tunnel in Latin America receives a decisive boost with a loan of R$ 2.5 billion signed in April and promises to connect Santos and Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo, in just 5 minutes.

Chinese engineers begin filling a 217-meter dam at an altitude of 3,000 meters and prepare a 2,240 MW hydroelectric power plant to integrate hydropower, solar, and wind energy in the upper Jinsha.

Giant turbines on the seabed of Scotland have been generating clean energy for nearly a decade without interruption, and now the big promise is that tidal power could solve the biggest problem of solar and wind energy: the unpredictability that no one has been able to overcome until today.

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