Torkild Rieber (March 13, 1882 – August 10, 1968) was a Norwegian immigrant to the United States who became chairman of the Texas Company (Texaco).

Over the next three years he oversaw the major engineering feat of opening the remote oilfield and building a pipeline through rugged and jungle-covered terrain to the Caribbean coast.

Rieber was sympathetic to the fascist regimes in Europe in the 1930s and illegally supplied oil on credit to Franco's forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Iran nationalized British oil holdings in 1951, but following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état that restored the Shah to power, Rieber negotiated an end to the dispute.

Rieber was born in Voss, Norway, on March 13, 1882, son of the owner of a dye works in a small town about 60 miles (97 km) from Bergen.

At the age of 15 Rieber left home and joined the full-rigged sailing ship Hiawatha on a six-month voyage around Cape Horn to San Francisco.

On return to Norway he attended a school for sailors, and then found work for two years as quartermaster on a barkentine ferrying indentured Indian laborers from Calcutta to British sugar plantations in the West Indies.

[3] After recovering, Rieber found a position as mate on a Texan oil tanker, the first to leave Texaco's Spindletop facility in Texas.

[5] The company struggled to get organized, and in 1927 Rieber accepted an offer to return to Texaco as vice president in charge of exports and marine transportation.

Rieber wanted other sources of supply in case the United States banned exports to one or all of Texaco's foreign customers.

[10] Standard Oil of California had acquired the rights to the Bahrain oilfield in the Persian Gulf and was seeking a partner with market presence in the far east.

He directed his associate at the Paris Texaco office, William M. Brewster, to relay to the Nationalists intelligence on the Spanish Loyalists, such as fuel amounts, cost, and type.

[20] He was successful, and Admiral Erich Raeder allowed the tanker to sail under the flag of Panama to ship oil to neutral countries.

"[22] Rieber met Field Marshal Hermann Göring in 1940 and was given a message from Hitler to President Roosevelt, inviting him to support Berlin's plan for a European Union, led by Germany, which would open its doors to the United States.

Rieber also talked with the German agent Gerhardt Alois Westrick, who was gathering information about American armaments and intentions concerning the European war.

[19] After the fall of France, Westrick threw a celebratory party at the Manhattan Waldorf Astoria hotel on 26 June 1940, attended by senior executives of IT&T, General Motors and Ford as well as by Rieber.

[27] Reporting his resignation in the 26 August 1940 issue, Life portrayed him as an innocent victim whose only errors had been to dine with Westrick and lend him a Texas Co.

[29] The two men arrived in Iran on 31 December 1951 and met prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh the next day, giving him a message from Robert Garner of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development before going on to inspect the facilities at Abadan.

[32] In February 1952 Rieber was part of a larger World Bank mission sent to negotiate an arrangement for restarting oil production pending agreement with the British over ownership of the assets.

[33] In 1953 the British and Americans sponsored a coup that restored the western-oriented but autocratic Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in place of the elected government.