THE WORLD’S PETROL

Evening Star, Issue 22515, 7 December 1936, Page 11

THE WORLD’S PETROL

MEN WHO CONTROL —;— ■ v : • Half a dozen men in Great Britain and the United States virtually control the world’s supplies of oil. The men behind the world’s fuel taps may yet be the ones who will control the destinies of nations, states a writer in the Melbourne ‘ Herald.’ r The “ king of kings ” m the oil world is unquestionably Walter Clark Teagle, president of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the organisation formed by John Rockefeller. He is 58, and has held his present post since 1917. Born in Cleveland and a graduate ot Cornell University, Teagle was interested in oil even as a youth. But it was not until 1903 that he joined Rockefeller. _ His rise was rapid. A man of great organising ability with plenty of drive, he impressed even the great Rockefeller himself- He controls £130,000.000 of capital, 200 oil tankers, and oil wells in almost every country in Europe and the Americas. The ramifications of his business would - make ordinary men dizzy, but Teagle is never ruffled. He is now a millionaire 10 times over. Edward George Seubert, the head of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. another vast concern, is a bachelor. His career has been a romance. He began as a humble clerk in the company at the age of 15, rose to become a director at 35, and become president in 1927, when he was 51. “ What Seubert does pot know about oil would not fill a thimble,” was an American’s comment on' this oil magnate. Cultured and well read, with a quiet, restrained manner, Seubert is very popular. He lives in Chicago and collects books and pictures. In Europe, Sir Henri Deterdmg, Sir John Cadman, Viscount Bearsted, and Sir Andrew Agnew are the-big oil men. Sir Henri Deterding, director-general of the Royal Dutch Company, a mammoth organisation, is Tightly proud of being an “International Oil Man.’’ He recently wrote a book with this title. He is a director of about 50 oil companies operating in all parts of the world. _ A native of Amsterdam, SimHenn is now 70, although nobody seeing him would believe it. He is more,than a match for the powerful American oil interests. With a house in Park Lane and another at Ascot, he is a wellknown and popular social figure m England. He travels extensively, for he likes to see things for himself, and he has three sons and two daughters. Sir John Cadman is the chairman of the powerful Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and also director ■of many other oil concerns. Born in Staffordshire, Sir John has been the architect, of his own fortunes. He is only 58. has been an inspector of mines, and a professor at Birmingham University. He is virtually oil adviser to the British GovernViscount Bearsted is chairman of the £25,000,000 Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Companv, and is also director of many other oil undertakings. He succeeded his father, the first viscount, in 1927. He is perhaps not quite as absorbed in business as his father was, but his influence in the oil world is great. He was one of the first to realise the potentialities of Venezeula. In 1919 that country produced 476,000 barrels of crude oil. To-day it is producing 120,000,000 barrels, and before the depression the output was 137,000,000 barrels. Bearsted is chairman of the Venezuela Oil Concessions. Extremely rich, he has three palatial homes in Britain, and is a great host. Educated at Eton and Oxford, ho has one of the shrewdest business brains in the world Sir Andrew Agnew, a Scotsman of 54, is on the board of more than /0 oil companies, including the AngloPersian, and is a man of immense importance. To him is usually left the negotiations of European oil concerns with those in America —a land where ho is held in higli respect. Ho has a flno house in Regent’s Park and is well liked in the big business world. If the long-threatened oil war ever begins in earnest, British interests will bo well protected by these four oil kings. None of them has anything to ieam from America,