Pemex

Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) [Mexican Petroleums] is Mexico's state-owned petroleum company. It is the 10th largest oil company in the world in terms of revenue and ranks 42nd on the list of Fortune 500 companies. Asphalt and pitch had been worked in Mexico since the time of the Aztecs. Small quantities of oil were first refined into kerosene around 1876 near Tampico. By 1917 commercial quantities of oil were being extracted and refined by subsidi... more

Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) [Mexican Petroleums] is Mexico's state-owned petroleum company. It is the 10th largest oil company in the world in terms of revenue and ranks 42nd on the list of Fortune 500 companies. Asphalt and pitch had been worked in Mexico since the time of the Aztecs. Small quantities of oil were first refined into kerosene around 1876 near Tampico. By 1917 commercial quantities of oil were being extracted and refined by subsidiaries of the British Pearson and American Doheny companies, and had attracted the attention of the Mexican government who then claimed all mineral rights for the state as part of its Constitution. In 1938, president Lázaro Cárdenas sided with oil workers striking against foreign-owned oil companies for an increase in pay and social services. On March 18, 1938 citing the 27th article of the 1917 constitution, President Lázaro Cárdenas embarked on the state-expropriation of all resources and facilities, nationalizing the U.S. and Anglo-Dutch... less