<P> One of the oldest subsea wells is the Bibi Eibat well, which came on stream in 1923 in Azerbaijan . The well was located on an artificial island in a shallow portion of the Caspian Sea . In the early 1930s, the Texas Co., later Texaco (now Chevron) developed the first mobile steel barges for drilling in the brackish coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico . </P> <P> In 1937, Pure Oil (now Chevron) and its partner Superior Oil (now ExxonMobil) used a fixed platform to develop a field 1 mile (1.6 km) offshore of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana in 14 feet (4.3 m) of water . </P> <P> In 1938, Humble Oil built a mile - long wooden trestle with railway tracks into the sea at McFadden Beach on the Gulf of Mexico, placing a derrick at its end - this was later destroyed by a hurricane . </P> <P> In 1945, concern for American control of its offshore oil reserves caused President Harry Truman to issue an Executive Order unilaterally extending American territory to the edge of its continental shelf, an act that effectively ended the 3 - mile limit "freedom of the seas" regime . </P>

When was the first oil well drilled in the gulf of mexico