page_title: Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company
section_title: Expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company / Expansion
caption_attribution_description: Edward L. Doheny and his lawyer Frank J. Hogan
context_page_description: The Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company 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 holdings in the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela. 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 to form Amoco.
context_section_description: 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.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.
  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.
  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.
  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.
  The Mexican Petroleum Company was the largest in Mexico, and Mexico was the largest oil producer in the world.
  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.
  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.
  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.
  Eventually the Supreme Court nullified both leases.
  It was not until 1930 that Doheny was cleared of all charges.
  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.
  At the end of 1923 Pan American had a net worth of $173 million, with net earnings that year of over $20 million.
  The company paid dividends of $20.4 million that year.
caption: Edward L. Doheny poses with his lawyer Frank J. Hogan in this 1924 photo
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