Far-sighted planning enhanced the ability of Sinclair companies to continue their growth through World War II. Almost as though the management possessed a crystal ball, it set in motion five programs in anticipation of the conflict which, by the system's twenty-fifth birthday year in 1941, had proven eminently correct. The sequence began with Hitler's rise to power in Germany.

What Sinclair Did:

• Sold its European marketing subsidiaries for cash and barter goods at a profit of about $1 million. So Sinclair lost nothing to Hitler during World War II.
• Anticipated the need for 100-octane gasoline by experiments with alkylation and polymerization processes beginning in 1937. When war came, Sinclair was able to expand quickly its production of aviation gasoline, the critically-needed polymers and codimer.
• From 1937 stepped up oil exploration in Venezuela, with the result that the Santa Barbara field was discovered before U.S. entry into the war. By 1945 this new crude oil source contributed 27,000 barrels daily to U.S. operations, helping to offset acute shortages at home.
• Augmented its obsolete tankers with ten fast new vessels which were delivered in 1941 and 1942. Of these, eight survived the war, giving Sinclair economical ocean transport during the post-war readjustment.
• Built a new products pipeline linking the eastern seaboard with the Ohio River, serving the huge industrial cities of the Allegheny region and Washington, D.C. This line served Sinclair marketing when other transport was preempted for military uses.

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