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 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