ions, accompanied by sudden, sharp price increases, were to be anticipated.
Indeed, in 1979, midway through the Lopez Portillo sexenio, the expectation of repeated oil crises, long term shortage of oil, and a long term upward pressure on prices seemed to be confirmed. The Shah of Iran himself, ironically, a leading oil price "hawk" was overthrown, and after a period of chaos the theocratic, violently anti American and anti Western regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini established its hold on power.
The Iranian revolution was accompanied by another "oil shock." The world price of oil shot up to thirty dollars per barrel and more, which even after the rampant inflation of the late 1970s was considerably higher in "real" terms than the ten dollar per barrel price reached in 1973 74. In early 1991, Mexican crude was selling on the world market for $38.50 per barrel.3 It was widely believed that within a few more years the world price of oil might reach as much as a hundred dollars per barrel.
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