Oil! oil museums in Kern County, California and the libraries and museums in the area around Silver City, New Mexico, as well as the period photography, which played a large part in shaping his screenplay and the film. Oil! Oil! is a novel by Upton Sinclair, first published in 1926–27 and told as a third-person narrative, with only the opening pages written in the first person. The book was written in the context of the Harding administration's Teapot Dome Scandal and takes place in Southern California. It is a social and political satire skewering the human foibles of all its characters.
Oil reserves in the United States from in 1970 to in 2007, before declining. Its largest net suppliers of petroleum products in 2007 were Canada and Mexico, which supplied , respectively. As of 2011, the US consumed 18.8 million barrels of petroleum products per day, and imported a net 8.4 million barrels per day; the EIA reported the United States "Dependence on Net Petroleum Imports" in 2011 as 45%. During 2008-2009 the USA became a net exporter of refined oil products; before the US bought gasoline, diesel and kerosene in Europe, and smaller amounts from other countries. The United States maintains a Strategic Petroleum Reserve at