Completion of the pipeline gave Sinclair's refineries access to 90 percent of all the crude oil production in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Now Sinclair could buy advantageously from independent producers anywhere in the mid-continent for delivery to its own refineries or--a profitable sideline--to those of its competitors. Along the line, 2 million barrels of storage capacity permitted the operating subsidiary to continue its policy of hoarding crude oil in depressed times for use when the price was high. The new line's capacity of seven million barrels a year could move one-sixth of all mid-continent crude oil production at that time.

Private Wire Serves System
A by-product was the pipeline's telegraph system, used for dispatching. Tied to Mr. Sinclair's New York office, it became a 2,700-mile private communications web that interlocked every operation from remote wells to sales offices.

An additional source of gasoline also was tapped to satisfy the voracious new auto industry. In oil fields such as Seminole and Cushing, Sinclair installed equipment to extract the "natural" gasoline from wet gas, then sold both gas and gasoline very profitably. The new refineries and natural gasoline plants combined to make the five original oil field refineries uneconomic.

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