Edward L. Doheny prices were high. The Mexican Petroleum Company was the largest in Mexico, and Mexico was the largest oil producer in the world. In 1922 Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased the oil field at Elk Hills, California, to the Pan American Petroleum & Transport Company. Around the same time, the Teapot Dome Field in Wyoming was leased to Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation. Both oilfields were part of the US Navy's petroleum reserves. Neither lease was subject to competitive bidding. In 1924 rumors about corruption in the deals escalated into the Teapot Dome scandal. Doheny's reputation was somewhat
Oil shale in Australia in 1910 and ceased in 1935, producing a total of . In 1924, the Australian Shale Oil Corporation was established for construction of a Bronder retort and oil treatment plant at Latrobe, but the operation was not a success and the company was liquidated in 1931. Other Tasmanian oil shale operations were carried out by the Railton-Latrobe Oil Shale Company, the Southern Cross Motor Fuels Company, and the Tasmanian Cement Company. After the 1973 oil crisis, several companies explored the oil shale resources of Eastern Queensland; however, these activities diminished by 1986 after a drop in oil prices. Starting in