Present Position of the Petroleum Industry in Mexico
Almost the whole of the Mexican petroleum industry is in the hands of the two great Anglo-Saxon nations.
Seventy per cent. of the capital invested there is American in origin, 27 per cent. Anglo-Dutch. Now Great Britain, in spite of the smallness of the capital she has sunk, triumphs more and more. Only 3 per cent. of the capital invested in this Mexican industry is Mexican.[20]
Increase of oil production in Mexico from 1900 to 1920.
Production continues to grow at a prodigious rate.[21] It has risen from 87 million barrels in 1919 to 195 million in 1921. Edward Doheny declares that it will continue to increase for thirty years. Considerable oil-fields are still unexploited along the coast of the Pacific, and the Mexican Government officially announced the discovery of oil in the islands of the Gulf of California in September 1921. The Mexican Petroleum has just bored a well, the Cerro Azul, producing 100,000 barrels a day. Two miles from this well there is another which yields 260,000 barrels a day. All these deposits are found at an almost uniform depth of 600 metres. It is estimated that Mexico can still produce 4,500 million barrels of oil.
There were 367 wells in production in Mexico on January 1, 1921, of which 61 belong to the Eagle and 34 to the American Petroleum. Other companies, with five exceptions, rarely hold more than a dozen wells.
The Eagle stands to-day at the head of all producing companies. Here are the four companies which produce the most:—
| Mexican Eagle | 32 million barrels |
| Standard Oil of New Jersey | 19 million barrels |
| Texas Company | 12-1/2 million barrels |
| Mexican Petroleum | 12-1/2 million barrels |