What is the history behind the Mexican Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, SoCal Oil, Chevron, Bahrain & Saudi Arabia?

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( I didn't know )What is the history behind the Mexican Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, SoCal Oil, Chevron, Bahrain %26amp; Saudi Arabia?
In 1930, Standard Oil of California (SOCAL), which had not been party to the cooperative agreements, obtained a concession on the island of Bahrain, off the coast of Saudi Arabia, and in 1933 obtained extensive concession rights in Saudi Arabia. The Texas Company joined forces with SOCAL in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in 1936. Meanwhile, Gulf Oil Company, in partnership with Anglo-Persian, had gained access to Kuwait, which was not within the Red Line.


U.S. and British companies also worked together to control Latin American oil. U.S. and British oil companies had been active in Mexico since the turn of the century, drawn by the rich deposits along the Gulf of Mexico coast and the generous terms offered by Mexican President Porfirio D铆az. Production continued during the revolution (1910鈥?920), and Mexico was briefly the world's leading oil exporter during World War I and the early 1920s.


On March 18, 1938, Mexican President L谩zaro C谩rdenas signed an order that expropriated the assets of nearly all of the foreign oil companies operating in Mexico. He later created Petr贸leos Mexicanos (PEMEX), a state-owned firm that held a monopoly over the Mexican oil industry, and barred all foreign oil companies from operating in Mexico. The U.S. Government responded with a policy that backed efforts by American companies to obtain payment for their expropriated properties but supported Mexico's right to expropriate foreign assets as long as prompt and effective compensation was provided.





Prior to expropriation in 1938, the oil industry in Mexico had been dominated by the Mexican Eagle Company (a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch/Shell Company), which accounted for over 60% of Mexican oil production, and by American-owned oil firms including Jersey Standard and Standard Oil Company of California (SOCAL - now Chevron), which accounted for approximately 30% of total production.


Chevron Corp., the second-biggest U.S. oil company, completed the deepest successful test of a Gulf of Mexico oil well, showing it may be possible to produce billions of barrels from new undersea discoveries.


The well, operated and 50 percent owned by Chevron, tapped geologic formations that are as much as two miles deeper than the Gulf of Mexico fields pumped today. Deposits at those depths may hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil, said Chevron spokeswoman Margaret Cooper. At the high end of that range, the reservoirs would rival Alaska's Prudhoe Bay.


Devon Energy Corp. and Statoil ASA, which each hold 25 percent of the project, known as Jack No. 2, said the test demonstrates the viability of fields such as Jack and BP Plc's Kaskida discovery, announced Aug. 31. Devon said in a statement that it could more than double its reserves with its holdings in the region, and the company's shares jumped.





``The farther offshore you go, the larger the unexplored potential,'' said Gene Pisasale, who helps manage $25 billion at Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in Baltimore and owns 832,000 Chevron shares. The flow of oil during the test, conducted in the second quarter and announced today, was ``substantial,'' said Pisasale.


As output has dwindled from wells in shallower Gulf waters, companies such as San Ramon, California-based Chevron and Hague- based Royal Dutch Shell Plc have pushed exploration farther offshore, seeking to boost their reserves. If they are successful, their finds might help sustain domestic U.S. oil production, which has been declining since 1970.