Archives West Finding Aid

Cornelius Stribling Snodgrass, “Strib,” was born August 9, 1900 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to parents Magnus Augustus and Susan Stribling Snodgrass. He married five times and had two sons, C. Stribling, Jr. and Francis M. He attended Martinsburg High School and Werntz Preparatory School (Annapolis, Maryland.) After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1922, he served on active sea duty until 1926 then went to the U.S. Submarine School.

Snodgrass resigned from the Navy in 1927 to start a new career in petroleum process engineering. He joined C.F. Braun & Co. in Alhambra, California, and held positions as European manager in London, England, and district manager in Chicago and New York until 1934 when he became an independent engineering consultant to TVP Limited in London. He became TVP’s Managing Director in 1935. In 1937, he started Snodgrass Perrin & Co., Ltd., a technical advisory organization specializing in processing natural and synthetic oils, based in London. In 1939, that company’s name was changed to Petrotech, Ltd.

Returning to U.S Government Service in 1940, Snodgrass resumed active duty with the Navy in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, DC. From there he transferred to the Petroleum Administration for War at the request of the Secretary of the Interior to establish a foreign division for the worldwide petroleum supply program. He served successively as Associate Director of the Foreign Division, Director of the Foreign Refining Division, Chairman of the Foreign Operating Committee, and then on a number of overseas technical missions including the well-known DeGolyer Mission to the Middle East for appraisal of Middle East oil reserves and facilities in relation to war requirements.

In 1946, Snodgrass joined the giant Bechtel Corporation as Director and Vice President of Engineering and Development, overseeing activities during construction of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline and other major postwar oil and gas facilities. He became Executive Vice President and Director of Bechtel International Corporation, and Director of International Bechtel Incorporated in charge of the Saudi Arabian Public Works Program. In 1948 he completed a classified government assignment for the E.C.A. (Economic Cooperation Administration) in respect to the disposition of Germany’s remaining operable synthetic oil plants.

Snodgrass left Bechtel in 1951 to join the Petroleum Administration for Defense, a government agency patterned after the earlier Petroleum Administration for War (World War II), and created to embark on an accelerated defense mobilization program for the petroleum and gas industries. He was Assistant Deputy Administrator in charge of Foreign Petroleum Operations and was responsible for organizing and directing the Foreign Petroleum Supply Committee, which made up the loss of Iranian oil during the Korean War.

After Defense service, Snodgrass returned to his pre-war activity as a petroleum consultant in 1952 with his Washington, D.C. company Snodgrass & Associates. His many projects included advising the Brazilian, Saudi Arabian, Pakistani, and Indonesian governments on the use of their natural resources. He worked with the Burmah Oil and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. companies in initiating the Sui-Karachi Gas Pipeline in Pakistan, was a U.S. member of the Madrid Commission directing exploration and drilling programs in Spain, and completed field inspections for the U.S. Foreign Operations Administration of 24 European refineries and petrochemical plants which had received Marshall Plan aid. From 1953 until 1958, Snodgrass was a member of the U.S. Military Petroleum Advisory Board.

Snodgrass joined Murphy Oil Corporation as Managing Director of Murco, its European subsidiary, in 1959. He investigated European oil markets and organized marketing operations in Europe, including negotiations for sites of Murco’s first petrol stations and terminals. In 1965, Snodgrass started International Oil Consultants with V.C. Georgescu and in the early 1970s, became president of L.S.G. Energy Consultants. In 1972, he was appointed petroleum adviser to the Sultan of Oman and helped create a department of petroleum and minerals. In 1973 he was named natural resources adviser to Jordan.

Cornelius Stribling Snodgrass died of a heart attack July 19, 1974 at his estate near Leesburg, Virginia.