Environmental Readings Bulletin Volumen 11: Mexico’s Oil History

Submitted by Marta Laura Carranza on 16 July 2018

In Mexico, the oil business history is traded back to the year 1863 when a priest named Manuel Gil y Sáenz discovered a superficial deposit near Tepetitlán, Tabasco. It is worth mentioning that the first explorations in search of hydrocarbons lacked scientific sustenance, so they were concreted in finding superficial manifestations of oil, that is, oil sip or oil puddle. With oil exploitation predominantly in the hands of foreigners, as well as the economic benefits taken abroad and after a long series of labor disputes between workers and oil companies, and because these companies do not want to comply with an award issued by the authority, President Lázaro Cárdenas decreed, on March 18th, 1938, the expropriation of the oil industry.

Cluster organisation
Share this Article