1922 | Energy
Energy
The Teapot Dome scandal that will help tarnish the Harding administration begins April 29 as the U.S. Senate adopts a resolution introduced by Sen. Robert M. La Follette (R. Wis.) asking Sen. Thomas J. Walsh, 63 (D. Wis.) to undertake a subcommittee investigation of charges that Secretary of the Interior Albert B. (Bacon) Fall, 61, has granted exclusive rights April 7 to naval oil reserves in Wyoming to Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil Co. (see 1914). Navy Secretary Edwin Denby has transferred control of naval oil reserves to the Department of the Interior, Fall has granted exclusive rights to 32,000 acres of federal land (the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Hills reserves) in Kern County near Taft, California, to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum (see 1893; 1923).
An oil well near the shores of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, gushes for 9 days in December before it is capped (see 1914). Oil was discovered in the area 4 years ago (see Curaçao refinery, 1918), President Gómez has bargained with British, Dutch, and U.S. companies to get the best possible terms for his country and eliminate Venezuela's foreign debt, and a company controlled by Royal Dutch-Shell has brought in the discovery well. Gulf Oil and Standard Oil of Indiana hold adjacent leases. Venezuela will in some years be the largest foreign supplier of petroleum to the United States, which at this point remains a net exporter.