Then in 1932 Sinclair annexed the assets of the Prairie pipeline and producing companies for stock valued at $136 million. This acquisition gave Sinclair the largest pipeline system in America, 36,000 barrels a day of oil production, many other assets and immense prestige. The Sinclair complex suddenly had doubled in size.

A few months later, again in an exchange of stock, Sinclair acquired the Rio Grande Oil Company, which produced crude oil and marketed in California. Now Sinclair had reached the West coast.

During all these events, the holding company lost the Sinclair name and became simply Consolidated Oil Corporation, a title which continued until the modern name Sinclair Oil Corporation was assumed in 1943. A realistic write-down of $143 million in assets still left Consolidated in 1933 the eighth largest oil company in America.

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