The first commercial oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, by Edwin Drake.

Henri Darcy is widely regarded as the father of petroleum engineering for his pioneering work on fluid flow through porous media, which laid the foundation for understanding and modeling petroleum reservoir behavior.

The SS Gluckauf was the first oil tanker, built in 1886 and used to transport oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe.

Mexico was the first country to establish a national oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), in 1938.

The Humble Oil and Refining Company Platform A was the first offshore oil platform, installed in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947.

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) was formed in 1957 to promote the advancement of petroleum engineering and provide a forum for technical exchange among its members.

The 1973 Oil Crisis was the first major oil crisis, caused by the Arab oil embargo in response to the Yom Kippur War.

The United States was the first country to discover oil in commercial quantities, at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859.

The Baku-Batumi Pipeline was the first oil pipeline, built in 1878 to transport oil from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Batumi, Georgia.

The United States was the first country to export oil, beginning in the late 1800s.

The Standard Oil Refinery was the first oil refinery, built in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1863.

The United Kingdom was the first country to import oil, beginning in the late 1800s.

The Standard Oil Company was the first oil tanker company, founded in 1870.

Venezuela was the first country to establish a national oil policy, in 1918.