1916-1960s
During September 1919, Harry Sinclair restructured Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation, Sinclair Gulf Corporation, and 26 other related entities into Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation.[9] In 1932, this new entity was renamed Consolidated Oil Corporation. In 1943, it was renamed Sinclair Oil Corporation.[10]
Near the beginning of the Great Depression, Sinclair sold the remaining interest in its pipeline subsidiary to Standard Oil Company (Indiana) for US$72.5 million (Standard Oil had purchased a 50% interest in the pipeline subsidiary in 1921).[11] With these funds, including an additional US$33.5 million from an additional common stock issue, Sinclair retired several promissory notes and prepared to weather the Depression with the remaining supply of cash.Between 1921 and 1922, Sinclair leased oil production rights to Teapot Dome in Wyoming without competitive bidding. This led to the Teapot Dome scandal.[12] At the same time, Sinclair Oil was approached by the Italian fascist government. Benito Mussolini's government wanted to increase competition in the Italian oil market, which was controlled by the Italo-American Petroleum Society (SIAP), which in turn was fully dominated by Standard Oil.[13] As the Teapot Dome scandal unfolded in the United States and reached the international press, Mussolini accelerated the negotiations, with a deal signed on May 4, 1924 (although without an official meeting, to avoid public outcry). Because of this, Sinclair Oil Company is known for having made "large payments to leading Fascists — all acting as intermediaries for Benito Mussolini — in return for an exclusive monopoly to drill for oil on Italian soil and in the Italian colonies".[14] The deal was reported in a press release by the Head of Government (Mussolini) issued on the night of May 15, 1924, and published by most newspapers on the following day. The press release assured the public that Sinclair Oil had been awarded its contract on a competitive basis and had provided guarantees it had no relations with the international oil trust.[15] This case of corruption was reported by the anti-fascist politician Giacomo Matteotti - who was later kidnapped and killed by Mussolini's newborn secret police, just before he could report his discoveries to the Parliament — in his posthumous article, published in the July issue of English Life (a magazine founded by Brendan Bracken): Matteotti accused Sinclair Oil of being a pawn of Standard Oil, as well as revealing "grave irregularities concerning the concession."[16][17] Matteotti's theses were echoed in the notes of Epifanio Pennetta, who contributed to the preliminary investigation on the murder: "To all appearances," companies like Nafta and Saper "were in competition with the Sinclair company, while in fact they were in cahoots with Sinclair" and added that Sinclair Oil was actually working "in concert" with Standard Oil.[18]During the Great Depression, Sinclair saved many other petroleum companies from receivership or bankruptcy and acquired others to expand its operations. In 1932, Sinclair purchased the assets of Prairie Oil and Gas' pipeline and producing companies in the southern United States, and the Rio Grande Oil Company in California.[23] The purchase of Prairie also gave Sinclair a 65% interest in Producers and Refiners Corporation (or Parco), which Sinclair subsequently acquired when Parco entered receivership in 1934. Lastly, in 1936, Sinclair purchased the East Coast marketing subsidiary of Richfield Oil Company, which had operated in receivership for several years. Richfield then reorganized, resulting in the creation of the Richfield Oil Corporation. Sinclair was instrumental in transferring capital and managerial assets into Richfield. Thirty years later, Richfield merged with Atlantic Refining, located on the East Coast, forming Atlantic Richfield.[24]
In 1955, Sinclair ranked 21st on the Fortune 500; by 1969, it had fallen to 58th.[25] In the early 1960s, Sinclair, along with Henry W. Peters and his son Eric Woods, developed the Turbo-S aircraft oils used for reliability in commercial jets, military jets, guided missiles and space exploration rockets.[26] At the New York World's Fair of 1964–1965, Sinclair again sponsored a dinosaur exhibit, "Dinoland", featuring life-size replicas of nine different dinosaurs, including their signature Brontosaurus. Souvenirs from the exhibit included a brochure ("Sinclair and the Exciting World of Dinosaurs") and featured molded plastic dinosaur figurines. After the Fair closed, Dinoland remained as a traveling exhibit.[8][27]
Two of the replicas (Tyrannosaurus and Brontosaurus) are still on display at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, Texas.[28][29][30] Another, a model of a Trachodon, has been displayed at Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago, Illinois.[28] A replica of a Triceratops is owned by the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville, Kentucky and after a 2022 restoration was mounted above their parking garage.[31] The Ankylosaurus is at the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Sugar Lands location. The Ornithomimus is at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The Stegosaurus is on display in front of the Visitor Center of Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. A copy of the Triceratops is also owned by the Smithsonian Institution and is on display as "Uncle Beazley" in the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.
1976 spin-off
In 1976, ARCO spun off Sinclair by selling certain assets to Robert (Earl) Holding. Assets divested in the spin-off included ARCO's retail operations in the region bounded by the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, and the rights to the Sinclair brand and logo, resulting in many stations along Interstate 80 keeping the dinosaur logo. The ARCO stations in Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, and some portions of Oklahoma were not affected by the divestiture. They continued as part of ARCO until ARCO pulled out of those states in the 1980s.[43]
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Sinclair was the 94th-largest private company in the United States. There were 2,607 Sinclair filling stations in 20 states in the Western and Midwestern United States. As of 2010, the corporation operated two refineries—one in Casper, Wyoming, and one in Sinclair, Wyoming. Sinclair operated a third refinery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until it was sold to Holly Corporation on December 1, 2009. Sinclair's other operations included 1,000 miles of pipeline.
In the mid-2010s, Sinclair fuel stations began actively spreading across southern California, including
