A History of the Petroleum Administration for War, 1941-1945

This record of the operations of the Petroleum Administration for War, and its predecessor agency, the Office of Petroleum Coordinator, covering the period from May 28, 1941, to May 8, 1946, is one of a series of histories of wartime Government agencies, prepared in accordance with instructions by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Harry S. Truman. It is more, however, than simply another report of simply another Federal agency. It is the history of a unique experience, dealing with an unprecedented program of Government-industry cooperation.

The program began in June 1941, when representatives of the petroleum industry from all parts of the country were invited to Washington to meet with the then newly created Office of Petroleum Coordinator for National Defense of which Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes had been designated Coordinator. The oilmen, most of whom later acknowledged that they had been fearful of some new and far-reaching measures of Federal control, were told by the Coordinator and the Deputy Coordinator that all that was wanted of them was cooperation in what was then a vast and growing national defense effort, later to become a prodigious war job. The relationship, the leaders of petroleum were assured, was to be that of a team---a partnership.