The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves, established in 1927, is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, responsible for analyzing and monitoring the U.S.'s

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

reserves. The

Pickett Act of 1910 Pickett is an English surname. It is a variant form of Pigott. Notable people with the surname include: * Adarius Pickett (born 1996), American football player * Albert J. Pickett (1810–1858), American historian * Allison Deforest Pickett (190 ...

authorized President

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

to withdraw large areas of potential oil-bearing lands in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

as sources of fuel for the U.S. Navy. On July 2, 1910, President Taft set aside federal lands believed to contain oil as an emergency reserve for the U.S. Navy. The Reserves were initially under the control of the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the man ...

, but in 1920, the U.S. Navy's Fuel Oil Office assumed responsibility for the Reserves. A year later, President

Warren Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

placed the Reserves back under the Department of Interior, only to have the

Teapot Dome Scandal The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyomi ...

force control back to the U.S. Navy. In 1927, the first Office of the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves was officially created in the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy maintained ownership of the Reserves until their transfer by the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977 to the U.S. Department of Energy.

References

1912 establishments in the United States Oil shale in the United States United States Department of Energy agencies Petroleum in the United States Naval Petroleum Reserve {{US-gov-stub