New Struggle with the Standard Oil for the Conquest of the World
One day, to the great astonishment of everybody interested in the American oil industry, Mr. Deterding brought a cargo of oil to the United States and sold it under the very nose of the directors of the Standard Oil. Emboldened by this first success, he tried to establish himself in the United States, and with this aim in view bought oil-bearing properties in Oklahoma. The Royal Dutch rapidly increased its territory.
By a bold policy and without recourse to the sharp practices of the directors of the Standard Oil, Deterding revenged himself for the attack upon him in the Far East. The Royal Dutch sent large quantities of petrol to America and sold them at rates as high as those of the Standard. This enabled it to make good its losses in the Old World and to emerge victorious from the struggle.
During his Chinese campaign Deterding had been handicapped by the inferiority of the oil from Borneo. To remedy this he proposed to obtain possession of various Californian wells.
Of all the wars that Deterding has waged, that of California is the most interesting and perhaps the most strenuous. It required a remarkable audacity for the Royal Dutch to establish itself on the very territory of the Standard in America. Would it not meet there the coalition of this great firm and the independent oil companies? And yet Deterding triumphed. He created the Roxana Petroleum Company in Oklahoma, the Shell Company of California on the shores of the Pacific, and then extended his conquests to Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Montana, Dakota and Nevada. Everywhere the Royal Dutch brings with it its curious methods. It begins by taking an option for six months on an oil bearing property, giving it the right to examine the books of the company and to make an inquiry. At the end of six months it takes an option on another property, and continues in this way throughout the region. After leaving nearly all the options without sequel, the Royal Dutch is ready to begin boring operations on its own account in selected places.
This method, adopted for the first time in California, is to-day the habitual method of the Royal Dutch-Shell. Thus this company rarely makes miscalculations in the oil-fields it exploits. Its agents have orders to report the minutest details to head-quarters.
In order to interest the American public in the success of his enterprise, Deterding was clever enough to place upon the New York market, in 1916, 220,000 so-called American shares. This issue was a great success, and it has thus become against the interest of many Yankees for the United States Government to start reprisals against the Royal Dutch, of which the late President Harding has often spoken.
In 1915 the Royal Dutch already controlled one-ninth of the American output. One-third of its total production comes to-day from the United States. It has obtained for its pipe-lines the right of passage to St. Louis and the river, and its surveys of Virginia and Louisiana are complete. It owns the great refineries of Martinez, near San Francisco, and of St. Louis and New Orleans.
Seventy-five per cent. of the Californian output, which exceeds ten million tons, now escapes the control of the Standard Oil.
But more than this, the Royal Dutch is gaining possession of the deposits of Mexico and Venezuela. The oil-bearing territories of Tampico and Panuco, the railway, and the local oil companies belong to Mr. Deterding. The importance of this region is well known. Its geographical position, a few miles from the sea, and its nearness to the Panama Canal double its value. Three hundred and fifty kilometres by sea, one hundred and seventy-five by pipe-line across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and the oil can be delivered at a centre which commands the whole South American market.