The interests engaged in the petroleum industry of Trinidad include financial groups purely British, controlling about 57 per cent. of the production; British-Dutch interests (Dutch-Shell) controlling about 23 per cent., and United States interests (General Asphalt Co.), controlling the remainder. The leading operator in Trinidad is the Trinidad Leaseholds, Ltd., a British company that in 1917 produced about 42 per cent. of the petroleum output credited to Trinidad that year.
Commercial control of the petroleum resources of lower Alsace has been in the hands of the Vereinigte Pechelbronner Oelbergwerke Gesellschaft and the Deutsche Tiefbohr A. G. Both of these companies are believed to be controlled by the Deutsche Bank through the Deutsche Erdoel A. G., and the Diskonto und Bleichroeder. The negligible production of petroleum in Hanover is doubtless under the same financial control, although data that would warrant a positive statement to that effect are not at hand.
The petroleum reserves of Argentina, which comprise the only areas from which petroleum is being commercially produced in that country, are operated by the state through the Comodora Rivadavia Petroleum Commission. German interests are thought to have been involved in two or three unsuccessful efforts in the last decade to obtain petroleum on tracts adjacent to the government reserves in the Comodora Rivadavia district.
The petroleum industry in Egypt is controlled wholly by British-Dutch capital operating as the Anglo-Egyptian Oilfields, Ltd., a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch-Shell Syndicate, through the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Co., the last-named company being predominantly British.
Commercial control of the petroleum industry in Canada is exercised in effect by the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, through its subsidiary the Imperial Oil Co. of Canada. This control is exercised through a virtual monopoly of pipe-line and refining facilities, and by the producing interests, though British and Canadian, being individually small and unorganized.
The production of petroleum in Italy, which is small, represents the output of two companies, the Petroli d’Italia, in which French capital is predominant, and the Petrolifera Italiana, which is believed to be essentially Italian.
Financial groups interested in petroleum in Venezuela include the Royal Dutch-Shell Syndicate (British-Dutch), the General Asphalt Co., (United States), and a group of British financiers who control properties in Trinidad as well as the most important group of companies, other than Nobels and the Dutch-Shell, in Russia.
United States interests, including the Standard Oil Co., the Doherty interests, the Texas Co., the Gulf Corporation, and the Island Oil Transport Corporation, are predominant in the quest for petroleum in Colombia. The Venezuelan Oil Concessions, Ltd., an English company operating in Venezuela, is reported to have obtained a concession to explore for oil in the northwest district of British Guiana.
The Sinclair interests (United States) are particularly active in the search for petroleum in Costa Rica and Panama; and the Sun Co. (United States) is understood to be investigating petroleum possibilities in other Central American republics.
The Pearson interests (British) have expended considerable effort in the quest of petroleum in Algeria and Morocco, and in the former country American interests (E. E. Smith) are reported to have recently sought petroleum concessions from the French government.