Oil
The American oil industry’s role in the Second World War was by no means limited to the production of fuel and lubricants, although that role was of primary importance to the war effort. The oil industry was also a producer of toluene, which for years had been attained as a byproduct of the process of coking coal. Toluene is an organic solvent with many uses, among them in glues, various lubricants, thinners, and paints. It is also a component in many explosives, TNT among them. In 1933 the Standard Oil Company had developed a process for producing toluene from crude oil, and by the onset of World War II the process was efficient enough to allow mass production profitably.
The Standard Oil subsidiary, Humble Oil and Refining, operated the Baytown Ordnance Works for the US Government, producing toluene throughout the war. Humble produced over 239 million gallons of toluene for the US war effort, just under half of the total produced during the war. Explosives and other materials produced using toluene were critical to the war effort, and nearly all of the toluene used by them were produced by US oil companies, with a small amount coming from the coking industry.
When Japan overran much of the Southwest Pacific and Southeast Asia it took over approximately 90% of the world’s supply of natural rubber, a major strategic victory, and the primary reason for the rationing of rubber during the war. US oil companies developed the means of producing synthetic rubber though the production of butadiene, which was manufactured by Humble Oil in Baytown, Standard Oil at Baton Rouge, and other companies at sites around the country. The manufacture of synthetic rubber and the success of rubber drives helped ensure that US military operations were never hampered by a rubber shortage.
The oil companies also produced the fuels needed for the military operations across the globe, including the higher octane gasoline required by aircraft engines operating at ever higher altitudes. Standard Oil of New Jersey and its subsidiary Humble Oil alone produced over 200 million gallons of high octane aviation gasoline by the summer of 1945. While gasoline rationing at home was becoming tedious by the end of the war, fuel shortages only occurred at the front due to local logistics issues, not because of lack of production.
US oil companies produced over 833 million tons of crude oil, refining it into the fuels, solvents, lubricants, and other products to drive not only the military operations, but large segments of American industry and residential heating requirements. By comparison Germany produced about 33 million tons over the same time frame, and Japan a meager 5 million.