Jones was one of the instrumental figures in establishing effective transport of crude oil from Venezuela, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the United States in the first half of the 20th century.

[5] After completing his schooling from Cooper Union, in 1913 Jones was placed in charge of Gulf Oil's Marine Department purchasing and small boat operations in New York Harbor.

[10] Jones also focused on the efficiency of foreign oil import into the United States, and lobbied to Robert Sikes in the House of Representatives on behalf of expanded and more expedient entry into the Port St. Joe channel in Florida in the aftermath of the Second World War, which at that time, represented the eastern terminus of the southeastern pipeline of the United States.

[5] In 1955, Jones provided the passage to and from Venezuela for Bassett Maguire in his landmark trip to further explore the Guyana Highlands mountain ranges of the Amazonian basin, in which the sandstone massif Cerro de la Neblina was discovered.

[3] Jones was a personal friend of Gulf Oil's founder William Larimer Mellon Sr., and the two maintained a direct correspondence until the latter's death in 1949.

At the time of his retirement from Gulf Oil, Jones was considered "one of the most widely experienced Marine executives in the United States.