Stymied by Nationalism Abroad, U.S. Oil Giants Count on Government
It is well !mo,,m that five major oil companies, Socony-Miobil, Standard Oil of California, Texaco, Gulf Oil, and Stardard Oil of New Jersey have, since shortly after W!orld 'Tar I been aong the...
...ccordin to oil industry economist Susan Gildersleeve (see "ear and r.r-Tern Shale Oil Outlook," The Commerical and Financial Chronicle, Feb...
...A STUDY CF AIERICAN POLICY, Council on Foreien Relations, 1958) In 1960, in belated response to this cartelization of world oil, the governments of eight "producing" or "host" nations (which together account for at least threequarters of the "free world's" crude oil production outside the U.S...
...Hopefully this spectacular experiment can be kicked off early in 1968...
...Ironically enough this territory, with its immense mineral wealth and precious beauty is still owned by the US governm ent in the nam e of the people...
...was curbed by the Syrir.n government hich went so far as to seize the companyts pipeline facilities for a short time and eventually succeeded in raising its transitterm.inal fees by 50...
...The idea of OPEC iwas to re :~l.to production -o ts to mintin high oil prices and to give member governments a degree of leverage :L;ainst the oil cormnanies when neoti-.ting for their share of the profits...
...Similarly, st,:rting in July, Interior Department research also shifted direction...
...for a capsule smnary of American oil diplomacy see Percy W. Bidwell, RAW iMiTRIALS...
...Moreover, the demonstrated viability of OPEC has touched off still more nationalist resistance to the oil companies...
...Gildersleeve aptly sums up the significance of the oil companies' desperate grab for oil shale: "Shale oil...
...Aind then there is the "A-bonb fever" which has seized hold of the industry...
...The tactics they have enoloye.d, which have included misrepresentation, the buying of dishonest politicians and ulic officials nd the harrassment and even attempted murder of honest ones, are vividly described by Adam Hochschil in the iay issue of Ramorarts magazine...
...The target this time is the 1,380 sqture mile Piceance Basin on the western slopes of the Rockies in Colorado...
...Venezuela, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Libya, and Indonesia, .banded together to form the Orrranization of Petroleum Fxporting Countries (OPEC...
...Bc"l-d by an abundant, secure domestic supply, no longer 'would these corporations have to kot,-tow to greedy sheioms grabbing for an ever bigger bite of the profits as they have so effectively been doing through OPC...
...M1ost visible has been a drive to force the government to virtually give aay the nationally owned shale oil land...
...Pemex, according toT 1Y...
...By 195, te five "majors" of the American oil industry, held, under lease or concessions from foreign governments, more than one-half of the world's oil reserves outside of ussia...
...If successful, it w ould turn out oil t a price full comrntitive in domestic ;I:D foreign markets, literally blasting a commercial shalo oil inustry into beings...
...The oil companies have been working quietly on this for some years now...
...Thus, private oil company executives are worried about the impact Pemex might have on private oil oerations in the rest of Latin l.erica and in the Mideast...
...oil corn anies are beginning to get apprehensive at the growth of Petroleos iexicanos (Temx), the overnment-owned concern which has oerated the Mexican oil industry since exico expropriated forei-n-ouned petroleum properties in 1938...
...Beneath this vast expanse of severely beautiful virgin territory rests a type of rock called oil shale...
...It is impregnated with an estimated 2 trillion barrels of crude oil, or five tim es the world's nownm supply of conventional liquid petroleum...
...oil man...
...It is well !mo,,m that five major oil companies, Socony-Miobil, Standard Oil of California, Texaco, Gulf Oil, and Stardard Oil of New Jersey have, since shortly after W!orld 'Tar I been aong the greatest beneficiaries of .American foreign policy...
...1 Street Jou rnal, "snubs rofits, winks at featherbedding on its huge an not.JinCly invests in money-losing ventures...
...a Continental Oil, Trdgerton, Gerneshausen & Grier joint venture-and the Bureau of 4ines, twenty-four eager oil and mining companies have now banded toS3ther to rap out plans for th...
...could give beleaured interaction l petroleum 'giants' such as Standard Oil of Nlm Jersey a powerful brnining tool which they do not now possess...
...s Gildersleeve puts it: "Under the lead ershin of Geonuclear Corp...
...The self-appointed task of the oil compnies, whidh are ccustomed to possessing all profitable oil properties, is to reverse that state of affairs...
...5, 1967) it was "under industry prodding" that the Government "reactivated the old Bureau of Nines shale facility at mnvil Points, leasing it to the Color.do School of ines esearch Foundation which in turn, contracted to work for obil Oil, Standard Oil of Nw Jrsey, standard 6 il of Indiana, Phillips Petroleum, Sinclair, and Continprtal Oil...
...Meanwhile, the Iran Petroleum Co...
...nd finally, as if to pour chile sauce on the peptic ulcers of private oil company executives, the Sixth Airab Petroleum Congress (which met in Iraq in :March) passed a series of resolutions urging increased control of oil operations by !Arab governments ith the ultimate goal of "Arabization" of Middle East oil, '!ith harbingers such as these turning up nearly every month now, it is understand able that th :nTeric.n oil industry is once again resorting to tactics that (continued on the next page)CLIA Ne-.sletter, April '67 -7 recall nothing so much as its conquest of the oil lands of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana...
...Inject shale oil into the picture and immunity from this unceasing sort of blackmail might ell be achieved...
...first atomic test shot aimed at wresting the oil from the rock...
...TIuch to the annoyance of the oil companies, OPEC has achieved limited success...
...The bruised oil company is jointly owned by the British Petroluem Co., Conpagnie Francaise des Ptroles, the 'oyal Dutch-Shell Group, liobil Oil Corporc.tion and Standard Oil of New Jersey...
...Yet in spite of its tendency to do things without regard for profit, Pemex has succeeded in expanding both its business and its productivity to the eteant that it has become a model for government oil companies of Brazil, Indonesia, France and Italy...
...shale work for the first time taking precedence over crude...
...Throughout te 190's, for example, American diplomacy battled Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands to oen the oil-rich lands of the i:iadletast to penetration ~b the American oil industry...
...s a successful government venture, Pemex is the model for other countries wanting to nationalize their oil," says an apprehensive U,S...
...see James C. Tanner, "model Monopoly: Ntionalized Oil agencyy in Mexico So Successful it WJorries the Industry," The UL.ll Street Journal, I.ril 7, 1967) In Venezuela, the Creole Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary o the .ockefeller's Standard Oil of New Jersey, suffered a big setback tihen the Vnezuelan government set up a schedule of higher tax payments and forced it to pay ;85 million for all tax claims for the years prior to 1966...
...U.S...
...In the nest year alone the oil c rtels hve also run into problems in exico, Venezuela, Syria, Iran nd Irac...
...Its crews, hen they aren't rilling oil wells, are busy paving roads, building schools and putting in water systems for rural villages...
...And just as the State Derartment obligingly serviced oil company cquisitiveness abroad, it is the Interior Freartment and the Ltomic 'nerrT Cormission which are turning over to the oil industry the publiclY' developed technology the.t makes extraction of oil from shale practical...
Vol. 1 • April 1967 • No. 3
