Cerro Azul
City and Municipal seat
Cerro Azul is located in Mexico
Cerro Azul
Cerro Azul
Location in Mexico
Coordinates: 21°12′0″N 97°43′59″W / 21.20000°N 97.73306°W / 21.20000; -97.73306
CountryMexico
StateVeracruz
MunicipalityCerro Azul
Municipality created27 November 1963
City status6 December 1983
Government
 • Municipal PresidentReynaldo Mora Nuñes (2008-10)
Elevation
260 m (850 ft)
Population
 (2005)
 • Total23,573
 • Municipality
24,739
Websitewww.cerroazul.gob.mx

Cerro Azul is a city in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Located in the state's Huasteca Baja region, it serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name.

In the 2005 INEGI Census, the city reported a total population of 23,573.[1]

History

The site had been a 10,000-acre (40 km2) area of rolling plains and hills used for cattle grazing (potreros). Hundreds of little asphalt springs dotted the area where cattle bones could be seen caught in the black seepage. Oil drilling in the area began in 1906.

The town's population grew exponentially following the drilling of the Cerro Azul No. 4 well, at the time the world's largest pumping 260,000 barrels per day (BPD), in February 1916. The well was drilled by Herbert Wylie for the Mexican Petroleum Company, then controlled by California oilman Edward L. Doheny. When the well came in the sound could be heard 16 miles (26 km) away in Casiano, and shot a stream of oil 598 feet (182 m) into the air, sending oil in a two-mile (3-km) radius. Over the next 14-years the well would produce over 57 millions barrels. Doheny formed the Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company, of which the Mexican Petroleum Company portion would later become the PEMEX.[2]

The municipality of Cerro Azul was created on 27 November 1963, and the city was given city status on 6 December 1983.

References

  1. ↑ "Cerro Azul". Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México. Instituto Nacional para el Federalismo y el Desarrollo Municipal. Archived from the original on 20 May 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
  2. ↑ Davis, Margaret Leslie (2001). Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Doheny. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 107–109. ISBN 978-0-520-22909-9.
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