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Multinational Oil Companies in South America in the 1920s: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Mira Wilkins
Mira Wilkins
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Florida International University
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Abstract

Generalizations are always difficult, especially in the context of varied national experiences. But by looking at the evolution of oil company activity in the 1920s in South America and by examining the range of relevant business functions — marketing, refining, production, exploration, transportation — the author throws light on the development of business-government relations in that part of the world, where the hostility of host nations to multinational enterprises was to grow so strong.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 48 , Issue 3: Multinational Enterprise , Autumn 1974 , pp. 414 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1974

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References

1 U.S. Senate, Special Committee Investigating Petroleum Resources, American Petroleum Interests in Foreign Countries, 79th Cong., 1st sess. (1945), 354–355. Henceforth cited as Petroleum Hearings.

2 Lieuwen, Edwin, Petroleum in Venezuela (Berkeley, Cal., 1954)Google Scholar; Wilkins, Mira, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970 (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 114–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Baptista, Frederico G., Historia de la lndustria Petrolera en Venezuela (Caracas, 1961).Google Scholar

3 Throughout this paper, the word “foreign’ will be used to describe situations in which ownership of a company was foreign to the nation of operation.

4 This paper is based primarily on data from the U.S. National Archives and materials from and on the oil industry. I am especially indebted to George Sweet Gibb and Evelyn Knowlton's volume in the history of the Standard Oil Company (N.J.), The Resurgent Years 1911–1927 (New York, 1956).

5 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 641, 639.

6 Buchanan, James E., “Politics and Petroleum Development in Argentina” (Ph.D. diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1973), 238, 239, 243.Google Scholar J. N. Stinson to Dana Munro, June 14, 1929, 835.6363/328, Micro-copy M-514. For this article I have used State Department correspondence in the National Archives (in Washington and also on microfilm). Except where otherwise specified, the numbered documents can be located in Record Group 59 in the National Archives. Frequently, I have used microfilm, and in those cases the notes indicate the micro-copy number. For South American nations, Micro-copy M-514 has Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of Argentina; M-519 deals with Brazil; M-644, Bolivia; M-487, Chile, M-746, Peru. The fears over Russian oil penetration were not confined to Argentina, but were a cause for worry in Europe as well. See Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise, 85, 88n.

7 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 505–506.

8 Indeed, anyone studying oil companies in South America on the basis of State Department records could easily pass over the important marketing involvement. It is evident only if one reads between the lines.

9 Hidy, Ralph W. and Hidy, Muriel E., Pioneering in Big Business, 1882–1911 (New York, 1955), 258.Google Scholar

10 A U.S. Department of Commerce survey of petroleum refineries in foreign countries in 1929 listed no refineries in Brazil. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Petroleum Refineries in Foreign Countries (Washington, D.C., 1930).Google Scholar Henceforth this will be cited as Petroleum Refineries.

11 See Memo from Standard Oil Company (N.J.), August 16, 1928, 832.6363/27, M-519.

12 Edwin V. Morgan to Department of State, August 21, 22, 1928, 832.6363/31,33, M-519.

13 Brazilian Business, 18:227 (May 1938); Wirth, John D., The Politics of Brazilian Development, 1930–1945 (Stanford, Cal., 1970), 148–149Google Scholar; Petroleum Hearings, 394.

14 Hidy and Hidy, Pioneering in Big Business, 529; “Qué es Esso?” a publication of Standard Oil of N.J. in Argentina, n.d.; interviews with company personnel in Argentina, 1964.

15 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 642.

16 Between 1914 and 1917, Standard Oil of Brazil (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Standard Oil of N.J.) held 65 per cent of the shares. In 1918–1919, Standard Oil of N.J. held 65 per cent of the shares, and in 1920–1922, Compañía Transcontinental de Petróleo, S.A. (wholly-owned by Jersey Standard and a producer of oil in Mexico) owned 65 per cent of the shares. It is not clear how the shares were held from 1922 to 1925, when they were turned over to International Co., Vaduz, a Liechtenstein holding company owned by Jersey Standard. Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 651, 643, 87, 636.

17 Petroleum Refineries, I. In Bahia Blanca, Cia. Nacional de Petróleos also operated a smaller refinery (2,100 barrels daily), which used Argentine crude oil and produced fuels only. Ibid.

18 Three small refineries in Argentina in 1929 processed Peruvian as well as Argentine oil. Ibid., 2.

19 Ibid., I and Buchanan, “Politics and Petroleum,” 238. Jersey Standard's managers sought to take part in marketing the output of YPF's refinery, apparently with little success. See Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 563.

20 This is not to say that outside of South America there were not refineries owned by foreign companies in host-importing nations; there were. But in the 1920s it was far more common for foreign companies to build large refineries in producing countries rather than in consuming, importing ones.

21 Giddens, Paul H., Standard Oil Company (Indiana) (New York, 1955), 254–255Google Scholar (on the Aruba refinery, which at origin had a capacity of 110,000 barrels daily). Refineries were also constructed in Venezuela, the largest of which was by Royal Dutch-Shell and had a capacity of 20,000 barrels daily. It was the largest refinery on the South American continent. Petroleum Refineries, 39.

22 The largest was owned by the British enterprise, Anglo-Ecuadorian Oilfields (Ltd.) and had a daily capacity of a mere 150 barrels. Petroleum Refineries, 11.

23 Ibid., 28-129; Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 679.

24 Petroleum Refineries, 28–29. Dispatch from Lima to Secretary of State, November 26, 1927, 823.6363/103 on Zorritos' ownership.

25 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 505.

26 Ibid., and Petroleum Refineries, 8.

27 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 505.

28 The government company also had two smaller distilling units located near its oil fields.

29 Petroleum Refineries, I, indicates that by 1929 the Campana refinery used only imported crude oil.

30 One owned by Cia. Nacional de Petróleos, one by Standard Oil Co. S.A. and one by Cia. Astra, in which Jersey Standard had a small interest.

31 Petroleum Refineries, 1–2, contains a list.

32 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 372.

33 Doyle C. McDonough to State Department, August 11, 1922, 824.6363/35, M-644.

34 Hughes to American Embassy, February 20, J925, 835.6363/277a, M-514. See also 835.6363/278, 279, 284, and the satisfactory resolution in J. W. Riddle to Secretary of State, April 1, 1925, 835.6363/282, M-514.

35 Kellogg to American Embassy, Lima, November 15, 1927, 823.6363/102 and reply November 26, 1927, 823.6363/103.

36 Petroleum Refineries, ii.

37 The YPF refinery was, for example, constructed by Bethlehem Steel. See 835.6363/290, M-514.

38 Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise 52, 53. See also Brandes, Joseph, Herbert Hoover and Economic Diplomacy (Pittsburgh, 1962).Google Scholar

39 Its Venezuelan refinery was very small. Petroleum Refineries, 40.

40 Ibid., 39.

41 Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise, 50, 122.

42 Mira Wilkins, “The Internationalization of the Corporation — The Case of Oil,” in K. E. Lindgren, ed., The Corporation and Australian Society (Sydney, forthcoming).

43 Enrique Mosconi's speech at University of Mexico, February 7, 1928, in 835.6363/311, M-514.

44 Percentage is based on data in report of Edward F. Feeley, June 18, 1921, 835.6363/69, M-314.

45 An American company had obtained the earliest of Venezuela's oil concessions, but lacking funds to develop its properties, it had turned first to American sources. When money from those sources was not forthcoming, the U.S. company sold a 75 per cent interest in the Caribbean Petroleum Company to Royal Dutch-Shell. This subsidiary of Shell became the first commercial producer of oil in Venezuela. Shell got a head start over American business in Venezuela. See Wilkins, Mira, The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from the Colonial Era to 1914 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), 165.Google Scholar

46 The main producer in Ecuador was Anglo-Ecuadorian Oilfields Ltd. This company was associated with Lobitos Oilfields Ltd., a British producer in Peru. In1962, both Anglo-Ecuadorian and Lobitos were merged into the Burmah Oil Company Limited Group. See Petroleum Refineries, 11 and The Burmah Oil Company Limited, Burmah Group Review (London, n.d. [1965?]), 16, 32.

47 Petroleum Hearings, 354–357. With political difficulties in Mexico, U.S. companies had curtailed production. See Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise, 114–115.

48 Buchanan, “Politics and Petroleum,” 237n.

49 Bain, Harry Foster and Read, Thomas Thornton, Ores and Industry in South America (New York, 1934).Google Scholar

50 Wilkins, The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise, 134.

51 Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise, 27, 493n; Tulchin, Joseph S., The Aftermath of War: World War I and U.S. Policy Toward Latin America (New York, 1971), 124, 125Google Scholar; Wilson, Joan Hoff, American Business and Foreign Policy, 1920–1933 (Lexington, Ky., 1971), 187.Google Scholar

52 Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise (1918 statement of Secretary of State Lansing); Hogan, Michael J., “Informal Entente: Public Policy and Private Management in Anglo-American Petroleum Affairs,” Business History Review, XLVIII (Summer, 1974), 187–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Tulchin, The Aftermath, 149. From my reading of the documents, I am convinced that in 1920 the Wilson administration felt eager to bar non-U.S. oil developments in Central America, Colombia, and probably Venezuela.

53 This situation came up in Venezuela. See Hogan, “Informal Entente,” and Tulchin, The Aftermath, 148–150.

54 Hogan, “Informal Entente.”

55 I have, however, seen no evidence that during the Wilson administration there was an attempt to interfere with British marketers of oil products in the regions near the canal.

56 See 1920 correspondence in 835.6363/25, M-514.

57 Samuel Abbott Maginnis to Secretary of State, August 29, 1921, 824.6363/23, M-644.

58 Wilbur C. Cook, Caracas, to Secretary of State, June 22, 1922, 831.6363/106 and Dept. of State, Division of Latin American Affairs, Memo, February 6, 1924, 831.6363/232.

59 Memo, July 9, 1919, 821.6363/62.

60 American Consul, Barranquilla, to Secretary of State, January 20, 1920, 821.6363/105.

61 American Consul, Cartagena, Memo, March 23, 1922, 821.6363/Barco/41.

62 Summary in W. R. Manning to Stabler, October 27, 1926, 821.6363/Barco/55.

63 U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, American Direct Investments in Foreign Countries (Washington, D.C., 1930), 19.Google ScholarWinkler, Max, Investments of United States Capital in Latin America (Boston, 1928), 118–123Google Scholar tries to name the companies, but his list is filled with errors.

64 Memo, May 29, 1929, 824.6363/84, M-644.

65 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 370–371.

66 Ibid. and Manning letter (see note 62).

67 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 374, 376.

68 Ibid., 380–381; Hartman to Secretary of State, October 30, 1919, and December 21, 1920, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1920, 11, 213.

69 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 382; 824.6363/8, 10, 11, 14, 43, M-644.

70 Copy of Petroleum Law, promulgated June 20, 1921, 824.6363/21–22.

71 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 382; 824.6363/35, 38, 60. Larson, Henrietta, et al., New Horizons, 1927–1950 (New York, 1971), 837n.Google Scholar

72 Memo, May 29, 1929, 824.6363/84, M-644.

73 A. C. Veatch, Sinclair Exploration Co., to Secretary of State, September 29, 1921, 835.6363/80, M-514.

74 Buchanan, “Politics and Petroleum,” is excellent on the Argentine debates. See also Frondizi, Arturo, Petróleo y Política (2nd ed., Buenos Aires, 1955).Google Scholar

75 “The Petroleum Problem,” Comments on the Argentine Trade 6:48 (July 1927).

76 See Peter A. Jay to Secretary of State, November 3, 1926, 835.6363/293, M-514.

77 Communication of June 27, 1921, 835.6363/67, M-514. D.E.G. wasn't the only German firm active in Argentina. A group associated with Hugo Stinnes was also active, but made no discoveries. On Stinnes' interests see for example 835.6363/95, M-514.

78 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 649.

79 Ibid., 381, 761n.

80 Francis White, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, to Secretary of State, November 30, 1921, 835.6363/95, M-514.

81 Report of Conversation, October 14, 1920, 835.6363/32a, M-514.

82 William Warfield, Foreign Producing Dept., Standard Oil (N.J.), to Secretary of State, September 28, 1921, 835.6363/79, M-514.

83 A. A. Eberly, Standard Oil (N.J.) representative in Buenos Aires, to American Consulate General, Buenos Aires, n.d. [December 1921], 835.6363/100, M-514.

84 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 381, 646; Warfield's 1921 letter cited in note 82 above; J. W. Riddle to Secretary of State, July 1, 1922, 835.6363/153, M-514; E. J. Sadler, Foreign Producing Dept., Standard Oil (N.J.) to Secretary of State, November 11, 1926, 835.6363/252, M-514; Natión, June 28, 1927.

85 Camera de la Industrie del Petróleo, El Desarrollo de la Production de Petroleo en la Republica Argentina, 1907–1963 (Buenos Aires, 1963), 1.

86 Robert Bliss Wood to Secretary of State, May 24, 1928, June 13, 1928, July 24, 1928, August 8, 1928, 835.6363/314–317, M-514; Buchanan, “Politics and Petróleum,” 243–249.

87 For 1920 activity see letter July 14, 1920, 835.6363/21, M-514. Camera de la Industria del Petroleo, El Desarrollo, 1. The subsidiary was Cia. Diadema.

88 J. N. Stinson to Secretary of State, April 4, 1921, 835.6363/62, M-514. See also 835.6363/75, M-514.

89 J. W. Riddle to State Department, December 3, 1923, 835.6363/265, M-514.

90 Buchanan, “Politics and Petroleum,” 166n.

91 Anglo-Persian was only a very small producer.

92 S. W. Morgan for Samuel Abbott Maginnis, American Minister to La Paz, to Secretary of State, February 24, 1921, 824.6363/10, M-644.

93 See data in 835.6363/80, M-514.

94 Wilkins, The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise, 186.

95 William H. Libby, to Secretary of State, April 12, 1915, 823.6363/5.

96 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 366–369; additional data from Standard Oil Company (N.J.)'s New York offices: Financial News (London), April 26, 1922; Novoa, E. Ramirez, Petróleo y Revolucion Nacionalista (Lima, 1970).Google Scholar Actually, Jersey Standard agreed to the $1,000,000 grant in return for the export tax provisions in the settlement. Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 367.

97 W. Roswell Baker, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, to Secretary of State, January 28, 1925, 824.6363/54 and 824.6363/54ff. Larson, New Horizons, 121, 123–124.

98 William Walker Smith, Chargé d'Affairs ad interim, to Secretary of State, March 5, 1920, 823.6363/20.

99 Carlton Jackson to Director Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, August 5, 1920, 823.6363/32.

100 William E. Gonzales to Secretary of State, April 20, 1921, 823.6363/43.

101 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 367.

102 F. A. Sterling, Chargé d'Affaires, Lima, to Secretary of State, November 15, 1921, 823.6363/53.

103 Ibid., March 6, 1922, 823.6363/56.

104 Herring, Hubert, History of Latin America (2nd ed.; New York, 1961), 544Google Scholar, says that Leguía's government (1919–1930) obtained more than $90,000,000 in U.S. loans. On the other hand, data in 823.51/1–456–823. 51W58/58, M-746, gives evidence on the face value of $136,500,000 Peruvian loans floated in the U.S. in these years! Larson, New Horizons, 114, indicates International Petroleum Company made several loans (more likely advances on petroleum taxes) to Peru; the historians do not indicate the size of the contributions nor exactly when they were made. On I.P.C. see F. A. Sterling to Secretary of State, March 14, 1922, 823.51/235 (“contributions of” Lp 300,000 or $1,452,000) and Ferdinand L. Meyer to Secretary of State, November 20, 1929, 823.51/443 (less than $100,000 to $200,000).

105 Dispatch from Lima to Secretary of State, November 26, 1927, 823.6363/103.

106 Bolivia: 824.6363/16, M-644; Venezuela, Colombia, Chile: 825.6363/40, 42, M-487; Peru: 823:6363/76, M-746; Argentina: 835.6363/61,62, M-514.

107 Longhurst, Hemy, Adventure in Oil (London, 1959).Google Scholar

108 A. N. Young to Thaw, December 30, 1927, 825.6363/40, M-487.

109 Apparently embassy officials had suggested in 1921 to host governments that they put provisions in their legislation on oil to exclude companies dominated by foreign governments! F. A. Sterling to Secretary of State, November 15, 1921, 823.6363/53, M-746. By 1922, the State Department, however, stated that it did not desire this matter to be pressed “except informally, discreetly, and on an opportune occasion. You should avoid, moreover, giving the impression of any special opposition on the part of this Government to any particular foreign interest or government.” F. M. Dearing to F. A. Sterling, March 6, 1922, 823.6363/56, M-746.

110 Miles Poindexter to Secretary of State, June 29, 1925, 823.6363/8, M-746. McDonough to Secretary of State, December 27, 1922, 824.6363/37; Flack to Secretary of State, November 8, 1923, 824.6363/40; McDonough to Secretary of State, April 22, 1924, 824.6363/43, M-644.

111 See Henriques, Robert, Marcus Samuel (London, 1960)Google Scholar and 1922 statement of Sir John Cadman, British oil man and later chairman of Anglo-Persian. Cadman declared that Royal Dutch-Shell was not British; it was controlled by foreigners. Reported in Petróleos y Minas, September 15, 1922, 29.

112 E. J. Sadler, head of Jersey Standard's Producing Department, wrote the Secretary of State, November 5, 1926, 835.6363/291, M-514, that his company had recently acquired concessions in northern Argentina from an English agricultural and mercantile firm, Leach Brothers. “When the British Ambassador heard that negotiations were pending or closed, he made a trip to the Northern Argentine, and … on finding that the negotiations had been successfully terminated reprimanded the Leach Brothers as British subjects for having disposed of their concessions to an American rather than a British oil company. The fact that a British Ambassador made so long and uncomfortable a trip for such a purpose seems to us rather significant, and could hardly have been prompted by zeal in the individual rather than policy.”

113 Leland Harrison for Secretary of State to W. Roswell Baker, March 30, 1925, 824.6363/55; see also 824.6363/56, 59, 62, M-644.

114 Moreover, the rivalry had on an international scale turned into cooperation with the Achnacarry agreement of 1928. See Federal Trade Commission, The International Petroleum Cartel (Washington, D.C., 1952), 199–201.Google Scholar

115 Petroleum Hearings, 372, and Report of A. Gaulin, Consul General, Rio, March 14, 1922, 832.6363/14, M-19.

116 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 380–381. On Lobitos see note 46 herein. Larson, New Horizons, 116, 400 (Jersey Standard's activities in Ecuador in the 1930s). It should be noted that the present optimism about oil in Ecuador does not stem from these early interests, but rather from the discoveries made in 1967 by Texaco and Gulf in the Ecuadorian Amazon, on the Colombian-Ecuadorian border. Ecuador in the early 1970s was second only to Venezuela in South America as an exporter of oil.

117 Petroleum Hearings, 373 and interviews, Santa Marta, Colombia 1964.

118 Allen Dulles to S. W. Morgan, September 14, 1928, 821.6363/Barco/190 (Dulles was with the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, which represented South American Gulf Oil). See also 821.6363/Barco/46,55, 126 and Kellogg to Legation, April 3 and 9, 1928, 821.6363/Barco/87, 90.

119 Diario Oficial, August 17, 1928, 396; the President reapproved the cancellation, August 4, 1928, 821.6363/Barco/126, 188; L. Hunt letter, August 6, 1928, Record Group 151, 312:Colombia, National Archives; 821.6363/182; 821.6363/Barco/224, 226, 230, 245, 261; Pratt, Wallace E. and Gold, Dorothy, eds., World Geography of Petroleum (Princeton, N.J., 1950), 108Google Scholar; Fanning, Leonard, Foreign Oil and the Free World (New York, 1954), 35.Google Scholar

120 See data in 824.6363/43, M-644.

121 Report of George A. Makinson, Consul, March 1, 1923, 825.6363/21; C. Van H. Engert to Secretary of State, June 8, July 6, and July 15, 1927, 825.6363/29, 32; William Miller Collier to Secretary of State, November 29 and December 29, 1927, Jan. 4, 30, 18, and March 6, 1928, 825.6363/40–48, M-487. Vega, Mariano Puga, El Petróleo Chileno (Santiago, Chile, 1964), 73–75.Google Scholar

122 Brazilian Business, January 1922.

123 Robert R. Bradford to Department of State, December 4, 1924, 832.6363/18, M-519. On Jersey Standard's plans for exploration in Brazil see Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 277.

124 Department of State to Edwin V. Morgan, May 22, 1928, 832.6363/27 and Morgan to Department of State, July 3, 1928, 832.6363/30, M-519.

125 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 377–379; U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Correspondence with Colombia in Connection with the Treaty of 1914 and Certain Oil Concessions, Sen. Doc. No. 64, 68th Cong., 1st sess. (1924) and 821.6363/Barco/235.

126 Gibb and Knowlton, Resurgent Years, 382–383.

127 Ibid., 382. Buenos Aires Herald, September 17, 1922. My interpretation is perhaps an oversimplification. The pipeline was not undertaken because of inadequate oil development in Bolivia. I would suggest, however, that had political conditions in both Bolivia and Argentina been more favorable, there would have been greater development of the Bolivian fields and then more interest in such a pipeline.

128 Robert Wood Bliss to Secretary of State, November 14, 1929, 824.6363/87, M-644.