The Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company (PAT) was an oil company founded in 1916 by the American oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny after he had made a huge oil strike in Mexico. Pan American profited from fuel demand during World War I, and from the subsequent growth in use of automobiles. For several years Pan American was the largest American oil company, with production assets in the United States, Mexico and Venezuela and marketing operations in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Brazil. In 1924 Pan American was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal over irregularities in the award of a U.S. government oil concession. Standard Oil of Indiana obtained a majority stake in 1925. The company sold its foreign properties to Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1932. What was left of Pan American, was merged with Standard Oil of Indiana in 1954, later renamed to Amoco after the American Oil Company, a Pan American subsidiary.
Edward L. Doheny was a prospector who became wealthy in the 1880s from silver mines in the Black Range of New Mexico.[2]
In 1892 he moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he sank a mine and found oil at the corner of Patton Street and West State Street.[3] This began an oil boom in Los Angeles. Doheny overextended himself and his company went bankrupt in August 1896.[4]
The setback was temporary, and a long-term contract with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway gave him the opportunity to develop and expand a growing number of oil properties.[5]
In 1900 he visited Mexico with his associate Charles A. Canfield and Almon Porter Maginnis of the Santa Fe railroad, saw the oil potential of the country near Tampico and began acquiring property.[6]
Doheny found heavy oil in El Ebano in 1901, which he exported to the United States for use in paving. He formed the Mexican Petroleum Company and funded it with $6 million of his own money.
In 1905 he bought properties near Tuxpan, and formed the Huasteca Petroleum Company to hold them.[7] In 1910, his wells in the Juan Casiano Basin in the Faja de Oro field started to produce good quality oil. The Casiano No. 7 gusher spewed out 60,000 barrels a day, and by 1918 had delivered over 85 million barrels of oil. In 1911 Doheny signed a contract to supply Standard Oil.[8][misquoted] In October 1910, Doheny signed a deal with the Waters-Pierce Oil Co. (part of the Standard Oil trust) for delivery of 2,500,000 barrels of the new plentiful supply.
Doheny's Mexican Petroleum Company made a major strike in February 1916 with the Cerro Azul No. 4 in Cerro Azul. When the well struck it shot a stream of oil 598 feet (182m) into the air. It became world's largest, pumping 260,000barrels per day. Over the next fourteen years the well produced over 57million barrels.[9] The Mexican Petroleum Company eventually acquired ownership or leasehold rights to 1,500,000 acres (610,000ha) of land.[10]
The Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company was incorporated by Doheny in Delaware in 1916 as the holding company for his Mexican Petroleum Company, Huasteca Petroleum Company and California oil properties.[7] What was initially a 51% controlling interest in Mexican Petroleum increased over time. After the minority shareholders of Mexican Petroleum were offered to exchange their shares for class B nonvoting stock of the parent company, Pan-American at the end of 1922 owned 96% of the shares of Mexican Petroleum.[11][12]
World War I drove up demand for oil-fueled transport, and Doheny responded by expanding pumps, tanks and loading sites in Tampico. By July 1917 Pan American had a fleet of 31 tankers. The company paid $1.1 million in dividends in 1917 and $3.1 million in dividends on its common stock in 1918. 1918 revenues were $17 million and net profits were almost $7 million.[13]
In 1918 the Carib Syndicate, a concern owned by Americans, bought the Barco oil concession in Colombia. They sold 75% of their interest to the Colombian Petroleum Company the next year, a subsidiary of Pan American.[14][misquoted] Doheny was also interested in plans to develop the oil industry in Venezuela, and in building a pipeline from Colombia to Venezuela to make it more economical to export the Barco oil production from the west coast of Lake Maracaibo.[15][dubious–discuss] In 1921 Pan American was the largest oil company in the United States, ahead of Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation and the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. Automobile production was booming and oil prices were high.[16] The Mexican Petroleum Company was the largest in Mexico, and Mexico was the largest oil producer in the world.[17]
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.[18]
On 24 January 1924 Doheny testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, and admitted that he had loaned Fall $100,000 in cash with no security some months before the oilfield leasing arrangement was made. Doheny said the loan was a personal one.[19] Pan American had been the lowest bidder for a contract to build and fill crude oil storage facilities at Pearl Harbor, and had offered to undertake this contract in exchange for the oilfield lease, being paid in oil and then paying royalties to the government for oil extracted in excess of costs.[20] Eventually the Supreme Court nullified both leases.[21] It was not until 1930 that Doheny was cleared of all charges.[22]
In 1923 Louis Blaustein and his son Jacob Blaustein sold a half interest in their American Oil Company to Pan American in exchange for a guaranteed supply of oil. Before this deal, American Oil had depended on Standard Oil of New Jersey, a competitor, for its supplies.[23] At the end of 1923 Pan American had a net worth of $173 million, with net earnings that year of over $20 million.[24] The company paid dividends of $20.4 million that year.[25]
On 1 April 1925, the California assets of Pan American Petroleum and Transport were transferred to a new holding company, the Pan American Western Petroleum Company, in which Doheny retained control. He sold a majority of shares in the remainder of the Venezuelan facilities of the Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company and his Mexican Petroleum Company to Pan American Eastern Petroleum, a new subsidiary of Standard Oil of Indiana. This included the Mexican holdings, Atlantic and Gulf Coasts holdings in the United States, refineries, pipelines and 31 tankers.[26] Standard of Indiana increased its stake over time and by 1931 owned 95% of both classes (voting and non-voting) of common stock of PAT.[27]
At the end of 1925 Pan American Western gained control of Lago Petroleum Corporation from C. Ledyard Blair's Blair & Co..[28] The transaction was to be the subject of a stockholder action in 1933, alleging that there had been a conspiracy by the bankers, who were represented on the Pan American board, to make excessive profits.[29] In 1926 Venezuelan Eastern Petroleum Corporation was organized as a subsidiary of Pan American Eastern with the purpose of buying and developing Venezuelan oil properties.[30]
On March 14, 1925 the Turkish Petroleum Company was granted a concession in Iraq, in which no petroleum industry existed at the time. 25% of the stock belonged to an American group of 6 oil companies, among them the Mexican Petroleum Company. In 1926 Pan American Petroleum & Transport replaced Mexican Petroleum. The famous Kirkuk field was discovered in 1927, but in 1931 Pan American sold its 16+2⁄3% interest in the American group to the Standard Oil of New Jersey which increased Jersey's share to 41+2⁄3%, before any commercial production in the concession got underway.[31] In other words, a prelude to the 1932 sale of Pan American's foreign properties to Standard of NJ. The Kirkuk-Haifa oil pipeline was completed in 1934 to an initial capacity of 85,000bpd and remained so until 1948. PAT's share of 16.6% of 23.75% would have provided the company with 3,350bpd at an Eastern Mediterranean port, far away from any existing company-owned refinery capacity and would have made it a minor part of a company that was in the initial stages of an effort to control almost the whole Middle East through its various affiliates.
In June 1930, PanAm bought for ca. $5 million the assets of the Tide Water Oil Export Corp., subsidiary of Tidewater Oil and a distributor of refined products primarily in Brazil and Argentina.[32]
In 1932 Standard Oil of New Jersey offered $50 million in cash and $98 million in Jersey shares for all foreign assets of Pan American Petroleum as part of a deal arranged with Standard of Indiana which then sold its entire stake of 96% in these subsidiary assets. With this acquisition, Standard Oil of New Jersey became Mexico's largest oil producer.[33] The deal also included large oil concessions in Venezuela and Pan-American's UK subsidiary Cleveland Petroleum Products.[34]
However, a few years later the Mexican properties were nationalized.[35] President Lázaro Cárdenas expropriated all foreign oil concessions on 18 March 1938 and placed them under the government-controlled Pemex, paying compensation to the former owners.[36]
In the 1940s, the case of Blaustein v. Pan American Petroleum & Oil Transport Co. was heard by the Supreme Court to determine whether the directors of Pan American had been in breach of their fiduciary duty. The directors were all officers of directors of Standard Oil of Indiana, which held almost 80% of Pan American's shares, and it was charged that they had deprived Pan American of profitable opportunities to drill and refine oil.[37] The majority finding, setting an important precedent, was that it should be assumed that they had acted in good faith and without personal gains to themselves.[38]
Effective August 17, 1954, Pan American merged with Standard of Indiana, the latter's board of directors increased by one seat to 16, to which Jacob Blaustein was appointed. At the time of the merger 78% of the stock of Pan American was owned by Standard Oil of Indiana. Substantially all of the assets were transferred to the American Oil Company (the former PanAm subsidiary, and now a directly and wholly owned subsidiary of Standard OIl of Indiana). Most important minority shareholders in the late PanAm corporation were the Blausteins, who received 0.777 Indiana shares for each of their PanAm shares (which amounted to ca. 22% of 4,702,945 common stock, the only class of stock outstanding for PanAm). The plan was to issue 777,716 new Indiana shares on top of the then current number of 15,386,519 (+5.1%). The Blaustein interests thus became one of the big shareholders of Standard.[39][40]
To form the American Oil Company, Amoco.[41] Amoco was in turn acquired by BP in 1998.[42]
Production
Map of Mexican leases and pipelines belonging to Pam American subsidiaries: [43]
Ebano
The company's first operation at Ebano was characterized by the Oil Investors' Journal as being very guarded and secretive in a 1907 report. The company's stock was not offered to the general public. The company owned a contiguous 1 million acres and was headquartered at the town of Ebano. It was believed to have drilled constantly for some years, but kept the wells shut in except for some two or three, until an outlet could be found. The heavy oil produced was especially adapted to be used as fuel oil, and the company supplied some 4,000bpd of unrefined crude oil to the Mexican railroads for use on their locomotives. There was a refinery in operation at Ebano, which produced asphalt that paved roads inside Mexico, for example in Guadalajara and Mexico City.[44]
Casiano
A 70 mile pipeline was laid, to some degree in anticipation, before the big gushers in the field were struck (Casiano No. 6 on July 10, 1910; Casiano No. 7 on September 11, 1910 - with a combined capacity of 70,000bpd which could be pinched off to 25,000bpd but no less if escape of oil into the countryside was to be prevented). The pipeline running up to Tampico was completed September 17, 1910 (capable of delivering 25,000bpd which was initially soaked up by Waters-Pierce[45]), but a stretch had been used since April 1910 to transport oil to river barges.[46] Storage tanks were quickly built, by 1914 over 8 million barrels of steel storage tanks and 2 million barrels of concrete reservoirs were completed. Contracts amounting to 30,000bpd were closed with Mexico and foreign clients. All requirements could be met from No. 7 well alone and producing wells at Cerro Azul, and Casiano No. 6 was shut in. Casiano No. 7 was flowing at a customary rate of about 21,500bpd and by June 1914 had produced a total of 31 million barrels. By June 1914 there were now 3 parallel 8-inch pipelines between the field and Tampico and together with oil arriving from Cerro Azul in the south, the total amount sent downstream to Tampico was 70,000bpd. There was a port and tank farm at San Geronimo (21°31′26″N97°36′40″W / 21.52397°N 97.6111°W / 21.52397; -97.6111) and a 35 mile railway line from the port passing through Casiano and terminating at Cerro Azul. The pipeline was parallel to the railway to the port and then followed the coast line northwards towards Tampico.[47] The pipeline system in March 1915 included two parallel 22 mile 8-inch lines to Cerro Azul and also a lateral 18 mile line to Tres Hermanos.[48]
Smackover
On January 3, 1923 PAT acquired 5 parcels including the 20,000bpd Clark-Mallat well in the light oil section of the Smackover field in Arkansas, bringing the total to 750 acres, all in the light oil section.[49] Smackover was discovered in 1922 and caused a small oil boom in the area.
In General
In August 1925, shortly after the Indiana takeover, PAT was working under a policy of conservation of Mexican resources, concentrating more on production inside the United States. PAT was running 30,000bpd out of Smackover to the Destrehan refinery, 80,000 through the Tampico refinery and 30,000 through California refineries.[50]
Refining
In August 1917 the Destrehan refinery was completed to a capacity of 10,000bpd but at the time of opening expected to reach 20,000bpd within 4 months.[51] At the time of the April 1925 merger it stood at 30,000bpd.[52]
Shipping
The first shipment from Mexico was carried on the tanker Snowflake, chartered in October 1911.[53]:116
Wooden tug Pan-Am (1925; A.C. Brown S.B. Co. Tottenville, NY)[76]
British-Mexican Petroleum Company
The company was formed in April 1915 as a 50-50 joint venture between the Mexican Petroleum Company (Delaware) and a group of business interests representing manufacturing plants, railways, a marine internal combustion engine maker and shipping lines all eager to switch from coal to oil.[77] World War I prevented progress and on July 15, 1919 a new company was incorporated under the same name, 50% of the £2m common stock owned by Mexican Petroleum. A contract was signed for delivery of 1,000,000 tons (ca. 7,500,000 barrels) or more annually of Mexican oil projected to last for 20 years. The British counterparty now included Lord Pirrie and William Weir.[78][79] The British 50% of the stock was held by the British Union Oil Co., behind which stood the White Star Line, Cunard Steamship Company and the Royal Mail and others and so the principle business consisted of the trade of fuel oil for ships.[80]
When PAT lost a contract to supply the Cunard Steamship Company with fuel oil in British ports, it sold all of its holdings in British-Mexican Petroleum in the beginning of 1924 at a substantial loss.[81] In April 1924 British-Mexican acquired a large position in the Lago Petroleum Corporation (presumably to make up for the loss of their Mexican supply).[82] It bought 400,000 shares of Lago Petroleum to inject cash into the operation and the Lago Oil and Transport Company was established on May 27, 1924 in which British-Mexican held the entire $2.5m of preferred stock and 51% of the common stock leaving 49% to Lago Petroleum.[83] In the April 1925 Indiana takeover (in which the British interests were again involved) PAT was again united with British-Mexican when it acquired 100% of the stock and the British interests financially participated in the syndicate that acquired a controlling interest in PAT. Then in August 1925 PAT sold (finally) all outstanding stock to the Anglo-American Oil Company, excluding the following American properties in which British-Mexican had some partial holdings in and which were transferred to PAT:
Anglo-American Oil had been segregated from Standard Oil in 1911 and in 1925 was marketing most of the oil of the Standard Oil of New Jersey in the United Kingdom. [85] In other words, the sale of British-Mexican was a prelude to the 1932 sale of PAT's foreign properties to Standard Oil of NJ in that it was (1) the sale of a foreign investment, (2) connected to Standard Oil and (3) the loss of a foreign outlet for oil, the lack of which became the primary reason for the later sale of the foreign production assets.
Tankers chartered by British-Mexican from Andrew Weir & Co[53]:124
Name
Tonnage
Caloric
10,270
Gymeric
9,500
Oyleric
9,530
Wyneric
6,930
Distribution
The company since its early days was supplying the Mexican railroads with fuel. Some 4000bpd in 1907[44] and 10,000bpd in 1913.[86]
The Mexican Petroleum Corporation, incorporated May 17, 1915 to manage the retail business of the Mexican Petroleum Co. Ltd. (Delaware) owned the refineries, storage tanks and distribution stations in the United States.[87]
Up until 1924, Pan-American only sold crude naphta and gasoline wholesale to Standard Oil companies (200 million gallons in 1923) but then in 1924 began operating its own filling stations. At the time of the Indiana merger in April 1925 there were 68 stations in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee.[95] A portion of that network came from the 50% share taken in American Oil Co. in November 1923, American Oil, concentrated in the state of Maryland, became sole distributor for Pan American products in a number of eastern states.[93]
Organization and Finance
Subsidiaries
Main reference for the list below (in parentheses are state where incorporated, date of incorporation and authorized capital as of 1927)[96]
Mexican Petroleum Co. of California (California, 20 December 1900, $10,000,000) - produces, refines and markets oil
Huasteca Petroleum Co (Maine, 12 February 1907, $15,000,000) - produces, refines and markets oil
Mexican Petroleum Co, Ltd (Delaware 17 February 1907, $60,000,000) - a holding company
Caloric Company (New York, 4 October 1911, $2,000,000) - operates marketing stations in Brazil
Mexican Petroleum Corp (Maine, 17 May 1915, $10,000,000) - markets oil in Gulf and Atlantic coast stations
Mexican Petroleum Corp of Louisiana (Louisiana, 8 February 1918, $1,594,600) - refines and markets oil
Pan American Petroleum Corp (Delaware, 5 November 1923, $100,000) - operates bulk and service stations in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana
Southern Pipe Line Co. (Delaware, 27 June 1924, $200,000) - company owns $100,000 of the capital stock
Southern Crude Oil Purchasing Co. (Delaware, 29 August 1924, $200,000)
Lago Oil & Transport Co. (Delaware, 10 November 1925, 5,500,000 shares no par) - produces and markets petroleum
Pan American Petroleum Corp of Tennessee (Delaware, 19 March 1926, $2,000,000) - operates bulk and service stations in Tennessee
Transactions
Pan American Eastern Petroleum Corp: was incorporated on March 26, 1925 in Delaware with an authorized capital of 250,000 par $100 preferred and 1,000,000 no-par common stock by a syndicate of (1) Blair & Co (Chase banking group), (2) Lord Inverforth (managing director of British-Mexican Petroleum with connections in British oil and shipping industries) and (3) Standard Oil of Indiana. Acquired 501,000 out of 1,001,556 of the class A voting shares of PAT from the Petroleum Securities Co. (representing E. L. Doheny and family holdings, who retained substantial interest in PAT and became second largest shareholder behind Pan American Eastern). At the same time, PAT acquired the stock of the British-Mexican Petroleum Co., Ltd. The transaction did not involve the exchange of stock of the Pan American Eastern to Doheny. A plan was announced to split California properties into the Pan American Western Petroleum Corp. to be implemented in the near future. There was no overlap between Standard Oil of Indiana and Pan American distribution inside the United States.[94] Standard Oil of Indiana subsequently increased its position in Pan American Eastern. On September 9, 1927 Indiana authorized stock was increased from $250m to $375m. There were also issued 37,500 shares ($25 par) to buy at a ratio of 4 to 1 one batch of 150,000 shares of PAEastern.[97] Standard of Indiana then also undertook to acquire minority stock of the underlying Pan American Petroleum & Transport Co. After an offer for the exchange of 7 Indiana shares for each 6 shares of PAT stock ended on November 30, 1929, Indiana was in possession of ca. 70% of the 3,442,608 A and B shares of PAT.[98] Since around the same time, PAT was in the process of exchanging 1 share of its own stock for each 2 shares of Lago Oil & Transport, Indiana's offer was renewed a few more times to absorb these new PAT shares: Indiana held 83% (93% class A and 79% class B) prior to the renewal lasting from July 1 to August 15, 1930 and held 92% when it announced to continue the exchange at the same 7:6 rate between October 1 and November 15, 1930.[99][100]
Pan American Western Petroleum Co.: Incorporated in Delaware on May 7, 1925, acquired from PAT 100% of the stock of the Pan American Petroleum Co. (Calif.) for $23,293,125, $11,250,000 were in the form of 15-year notes and the rest in cash raised from the sale of 500,000 Pan American Western shares, 100,000 class A voting shares acquired at $23.50 by the Petroleum Securities Co. (Doheny family) and 400,000 class B nonvoting shares at $23.50 sold principally to existing PAT shareholders who were offered the right to subscribe to a share for each 7 shares of PAT they held and with Petroleum Securities obtaining all those class B shares that could not be sold otherwise. The California company continued as the operating subsidiary of Pan American Western.[101][102][103] The Richfield Oil Corporation acquired all outstanding class A and a substantial block of class B shares from Doheny's Petroleum Securities Co. in a June 20, 1928 deal in which Richfield also announced the intention to buy the balance of shares in the future in exchange for Richfield stock. Also purchased were all of the physical assets of Pacific Petroleum Products Co. The result was a withdrawal of Doheny interests from all refining and marketing on the West Coast. Petroleum Securities Co. entered into a 10-year contract to sell their entire 20,000bpd crude production to Richfield (who produced 40,000bpd).[104]
Pan American Foreign Corp. (Delaware): was incorporated on March 9, 1932[105] with an authorized capital of 1,100,000 class A and 3,000,000 class B. PAT received in exchange for its foreign assets all newly created outstanding shares of ForeignCorp, the number of shares exactly equal to the number of shares of the parent company. The shares were distributed to PAT shareholders one ForeignCorp share for each PAT share. Standard Oil of Indiana held 96% of the common stock of PAT and so received 96% of the stock of ForeignCorp, which it agreed to sell in bulk to Standard Oil of New Jersey. Jersey offered $50m in cash and an estimated $96m in stock for 100% of ForeignCorp shares, based on the book value of the ForeignCorp assets on April 30, 1932 and the book value of Jersey shares on December 31, 1931.[106] Standard of Indiana's 96%, or 971,897 "A" and 2,301,400 "B" ForeignCorp shares, amounted to $47,910,106 in cash and 1,778,973 Jersey shares, both of which were paid in 5 annual installments, the last due May 5, 1936. Jersey bought its own shares for the first 4 installments on the open market and issued new shares for the last installment.[107] The Pan American Foreign Corp. was dissolved at the end of 1936 to avoid double taxation under the Revenue Act of 1936.[108] Lloyd's register listed Pan American Foreign Corp. as owners of the transferred tankers in 1932 and Standard of New Jersey as owners in 1935.
The novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair published in 1927 is loosely based on Doheney's life and the story of Pan American.[42]Oil! was in turn the inspiration for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood.
A photo by Walker Evans in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men of a post office in Sprott, AL shows a Pan-Am pump.[117]
The first export of Mexican crude oil sailed on or around May 26, 1911, 32,000bbl aboard the Standard Oil Co. steamer Captain Lucas from Tampico, the oil provided by the Huasteca Petroleum Company.[128]
Penn-Mex Fuel Co.: incorporated in Delaware ca. July 1912 with $10 million capital.[149] The company had under lease some 160,000 acres. In early 1913 It became a subsidiary of South Penn Oil Company (segregated from Standard Oil in 1911).[150] On May 22, 1913 Alamo No. 1 (1,000bpd) was completed and on October 28, 1913 Alamo No. 2 (20,000bpd), located near the Tuxpan river. No adequate storage was available, but the well could be shut in without leakage.[151][152] The company completed in December 1914 two 26 mile pipelines from their El Alamo field to Tuxpan, a 4-inch water line and an 8-inch oil line.[153] At that time a 13.5 mile railroad was built from the Tuxpan river bank near Zapotal to El Alamo in place of a prior mule haulage way (and far from the shortest route to reach the river from Alamo it ran approximately parallel to it).[154] Zapotal (20°51′22″N97°29′20″W / 20.8562°N 97.48884°W / 20.8562; -97.48884 (Zapotal pumping station of Penn-Mex Fuel Co (1916-)) was also the site of the permanent intermediate pumping station that was put in operation in the latter part of 1916 some time after the Alamo station at the line's ingress point.[155] As shown on the map:[118] The first of 4 sea loading lines was ready at the end of February 1915, establishing one loading berth 6,660ft from the beach.[156] The first shipment of 64,600bbl, consigned to Standard of NJ, departed on the C. A. Canfield (a Doheny boat) on March 26, 1915 after loading for 36 hours since 10:41am on the 25th.[157][158] The terminal was on the south bank of the Tuxpan river where it flows into the Gulf and was named Alvarez by the company. The site also hosted the company general offices and was opposite to the older Mexican Eagle Oil terminal on the north bank.[159] Eventually there were at least 28 wells at Alamo.[160] ... In June 1927 Penn-Mex settled their lawsuit out of court and restarted operations. At that point there were 3 holes at Paso Real drilled to cap rock.[161] Profits reported were: $1,965,701 (1928), $283,510 (1929).[162] In September 1932 the firm's capital stock was reduced from $10 million ($25 par) to $400,000 ($1 par).[163][164] In October 1932 the Consolidated Oil Corp offered slightly more than $1 per share and a further time-limited royalty on oil produced. South Penn Oil sold all 220,000 of the 400,000 outstanding shares it held in bulk. The operation was to be combined with Consolidated Oil's existing operation in Mexico. The sale happened in response to the 1932 U.S. oil import tariffs, distribution was to be directed to Central and South America.[165] In 1928 the stock had traded at a high of $84,[166] when after being the only company in 1927 to make gains (of almost 400%) in an industry that declined by 31.3%, Penn-Mex was predicted to continue growing even further in 1928,[167] and they did: production went up to 4,256,267 (1928) from 2,399,356 (1927).[168] In 1941, Penn-Mex accepted $300,000 compensation for the 1938 expropriation of its assets.[169] The company was liquidated In 1942.[170]
East Coast Oil Co. - an affiliate of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, worked for about one year in 1911/1912 (since 1909[171]) a lease 9 miles north of Tuxpan, drilled 3 holes with one reaching 4,000ft, but suspended their efforts there and moved to their other leases in the Panuco district near Tampico.[172] There they drilled the first two wells of the district about 1.5 miles from the town of Panuco. No. 1 was completed August 4, 1910 at 2,700ft with a flow of 150bpd, No. 2 on March 17, 1911 at 1,800ft flowing at 400bpd (12° gravity). An 8-inch line was laid to the Panuco River for onward shipment by river barge to Tampico.[173] At the end of 1911, the company had 2 producers at Panuco, 2 at Topila and at Topila had just completed the first 2x37,500bbl tanks and a 1.5 mile 8-inch line from the field to the Panuco river.[174] This was in addition to 5 earthen reservoirs previously built at Topila, where the No. 2 well had a pinched-off flow of 2,500bpd down from the initial 5,000bpd when oil was struck on March 24, 1911.[175][176] On October 1, 1911 Texaco began shipping East Coast Co. oil to Texas, a service for which they received 50% of the production.[177] The company laid at the end of 1912 40 miles of 8-inch pipe from near Panuco through Topila to its tank farm on the Torres tract, 10 miles west of Tampico, with the stretch from Topila to Torres consisting of two pipes.[178] The 5,150 ton tanker Topila was built by Newport News Shipbuilding for $600k and finished trials in August 1913.[179][180] The tanker Torres was launched at the Newport News Shipnuilding yard on May 12, 1917.[181] The keel of the 16,340dwt tanker Tamiahua was laid February 28, 1921 at the Moore Shipbuilding Company yard where it was launched July 2, 1921.[182] In 1929 Southern Pacific sold the 3 tankers to the Richfield Oil Company: Tamiahua (130,000bbl), Topila (55,000bbl), Torres (55,000bbl).[183][184]
Island Oil & Transport Co. - As the conclusion of a legal dispute, on April 20, 1920 the Metropolitan Petroleum Corp. of Virginia agreed to settle all its debts and exchange its property for 525,000 shares of Island Corp. stock and representation on the board, after which Metropolitan Petroleum was dissolved.[185][186] The company was put into receivership on March 20, 1922 when its capital structure could not weather the burden of the widespread appearance of salt water in Mexican oil wells.[187]
Texas Company - was represented by R. E. Brooks interests, the Tampico Company and the Panuco Transportation Company.[188]
Pierce Oil Corporation - incorporated in Virginia on June 21, 1913 as the successor of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company and (since April 30, 1918[189]) the Pierce-Fordyce Oil Association. On May 7, 1924 received for all its assets 1,103,679 shares of Pierce Petroleum, which also assumed all liabilities but not Pierce Oil preferred stock. These assets were: (a) 5 refineries totaling 48,000bpd
Texas City purchased by Pierce-Fordyce as a 3,000bpd plant in 1911 for $172,000 and with some $500,000[192] at the same time enlarged to 5,000bpd[193][194]
Tampico - built before 1908 to refine crude imported from the United States.[198] In May 1911, at the beginning of the Mexican oil boom, it was running at capacity (5,000bpd) and enlargements were underway.[199]
(b) 25,360 acres of oil lands leased and some owned in OK,TX,AR,Tampico, (c) 3 tankers (Mexicano,[200] Pennant,[201] Solarina[202]), 1,600 tank cars, (d) 1,150 distribution stations, (e) a 35 mile 6-inch pipe line owned in fee from Cushing Field to Sand Springs, a 100 mile 8-inch pipe line (completed in 1917[203]) from Healdton field (OK) to Fort Worth.[204] An offer to Pierce Oil shareholders to exchange their stock for Pierce Petroleum stock was cancelled for all applicants when not enough signed up for it.[205]
Pierce Petroleum Corp. - incorporated in Delaware on April 25, 1924. Of the 2,500,000 shares authorized, 1,103,679 were issued and exchanged for all properties of Pierce Oil; the remaining 1,396,321 were issued (underwritten by Lehman Bros, Goldman Sachs and Hornblower & Weeks), offered to Pierce Oil stockholders at $7 per share and used to settle obligations including claims arising out the settlement with International & Great Northern Railroad.[204] The company was dissolved in June 1930. In exchange for all assets, the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corp. assumed all liabilities: bonds (<= $460,000), (gave cash to redeem at $102 and interest) 10,500 shares of preferred stock, federal income tax (<=$500,000). Owners of Pierce Petr. Co. common stock received 645,834 shares of Sinclair stock. The Pierce Oil Co. whose only asset were 1,103,419.5 shares of Pierce Petr. Co. stock received ca. 285,000 Sinclair shares.[206][207] Sinclair issued 700,000 new shares for this deal.[208]
Waters-Pierce Oil Co. - successor in 1877 to H. C. Pierce & Co then named Waters, Pierce & Co,[209] was a co-defendant in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States with Standard Oil of New Jersey owning $274,700 of the $400,000 par capital of the company, the shares were subsequently distributed proportionally to the stockholders of Standard of New Jersey.[210] On October 20, 1910 W-P closed the heretofore biggest deal in Mexican crude with Doheny's Mexican Petroleum Co.: delivery of 2,500,000 barrels of southern field (min 14° gravity) at 82.5 cents a barrel.[211] On July 25, 1913 the Pierce Oil Corp acquired all assets of the Waters-Pierce Oil Co. in exchange for $5m in cash, the entire $10.5m outstanding common stock of Pierce Oil Corp, retirement of $1,250,000 Waters-Pierce debt and $1,400,000 Pierce-Fordyce Oil Association debt. Each $100 stock of Waters-Pierce (total $400,000 outstanding) thus received $1,250 cash and $2,625 Pierce Oil stock. Pierce Oil Corp issued $8m in 10-year notes to facilitate the cash payment and debt retirement.[212]
Mexican Fuel [Oil] Co. - was the production subsidiary of Pierce Oil in Mexico, active in the Topila field. The company struck its first ever gusher (Tamboyche No. 3, est. 20,000bpd) on September 13, 1918.[213] Other Topila wells where named Santa Fe, of which there were at least 9,[214]El Cerito on the Herrera property, of which there were at least 3.[215]
↑ Southwest of Isla de Lobos, where the shore follows a northeasterly path. Host to the following oil loading stations: Tecomate, Mata Redonda, Chorrera, Palo Blanco, Guayabalillo, Port Lobos (San Nicolas), Agua Dulce[146] The terminal and refinery of Texaco at Agua Dulce was 6 miles south of a well drilled on Idolo Island.[147]
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