History

History

 With it being the sixth largest producer of oil in the world, you would think that Mexico's oil would have been discovered sooner than later. The first drilling took place in 1869, but oil wasn't actually found until the beginning of the 1900's. The oil was found in a small town called Tuxpan. Soon after discovered, the lovely Americans came to take over. Mexico began exporting oil in 1911.

There was a law in the Constitution of 1917 that stated Mexico had complete rights over their oil. Foreign companies (mostly American) fought this. They put up a stink until 1925, when President Plutarco Elias Calles stated that all companies have to register and can't stay any longer than 50 years. After this was resolved, all was good - well, it should've been, if the rest of the world wasn't suffering in the depression. That, plus the fact that Venezuela was looking more attractive from it's petroleum discovery, taxation, and political turmoil led to the industry's fall (20% loss from 1921's level). Recovery began in 1932, when the site, Poza Rica was discovered.