Just as the oil supply of the United States fell in the 1970s and it had to transition to being an importer of oil instead of an exporter, Mexico’s wells are also going dry; it could become an oil importer by 2020. This March 8, 2010 New York Times article, Mexico Oil Politics Keeps Riches Just Out of Reach, states that Mexico’s production has fallen from almost 3.5 million barrels a day in 2004 to a projected average of 2.5 million barrels this year (2010), which is exactly the type of trending that occurred in the United States and elsewhere as more and more oil fields go dry.

Mexico is one of the three leading foreign suppliers of oil to the United States, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia, and as Mexican production and exports wayne, the United States will have to get its oil more and more from unfriendly countries like Venezuela or unstable countries like Nigeria and Iraq. This shift of where America gets its oil is well-known to policy makers in Washington, and there are surely adjustments to foreign policy and military strategy that accompany it