
Texas, the epicenter of the shale boom, is gushing with oil.
Production in the Lone Star State soared by 22% to 1.54 billion barrels in 2018, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association.
That shatters the previous Texas record of 1.28 billion barrels set in 1973.
The spike in Texas' oil production has been driven by the Permian Basin, the shale hotbed located in West Texas and New Mexico. Rapid technological improvements in drilling have morphed the Permian into one of the world's largest and most important oilfields.
It's been a boon to the Texas economy. The report said that the oil and gas industry supported a total of 352,371 direct jobs in Texas last year, up by 26,706 from 2017. And these jobs pay "extremely well," with an average annual wage of $130,706 -- more than double the state's average private-sector salary.