Word: gulbenkian
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...million deal for Standard Oil Co. (NJ.) and Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc. to go into Saudi Arabia (TIME, March 24). But Standard's announcement of settlement was tinged with annoyance: before the deal could be closed, it had to be approved by Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian. And last week, Gulbenkian wasn't having...
...might seem temerarious for an individual to buck the world's greatest oil companies, but not when the individual was Gulbenkian; he was an old hand at it. For more than a quarter of a century, his legendary figure has flitted through Middle Eastern oil deals. Bald, beak-nosed and now 79, Gulbenkian is such a well-known operator that oilmen refer to him simply as "G." Despite two wars and slippery international oil politics, G has managed to hang on to his 5% interest in Iraq Petroleum Co., Ltd., which has brought him a fortune variously estimated...
...Collector. Gulbenkian was reputedly born in Istanbul, the son of an Armenian rug peddler, by one version; according to another, the descendant of a long line of Armenian kings. He became a British subject in 1902 and went to King's College, London, although the story still lingers that he entered England as a rug peddler, smuggling in his three-year-old son in a carpet. In any case, Gulbenkian early made himself a useful agent in the Near East for the late Sir Henri Deterding, Royal Dutch-Shell's head...
Before World War I, Gulbenkian wangled an oil concession for all of Iraq for the British, German and Dutch interests which formed the Turkish Petroleum Co., now Iraq Petroleum. They rewarded Gulbenkian with his 5% interest. In 1928, when Standard and Socony were admitted, all the partners-including the French, Royal Dutch-Shell, Anglo-Iranian and Gulbenkian-signed the "Red Line" agreement to share & share alike in any new exploitation of ex-Ottoman Empire territory. Later, he fell out with Deterding. Reportedly, Gulbenkian trimmed him so much in bear raids on Shell stock that the British government finally stepped...
Collector of Oils. With his oil wealth, Gulbenkian acquired one of the world's finest private art collections, including the famed September Morn by Paul Chabas, and a palatial house on Paris' Avenue d'Iéna. Yet he lived in such fear of his life that he invariably spent his nights in a Paris hotel, where he felt safer...