Word: oilmen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...thirds of the tax breaks knocked out by Treasury I. The oil-depletion allowance and fast write-offs for drilling have been at least partly preserved. Without incentives, the oil lobby argued, new energy sources would go untapped, making the U.S. more dependent on foreign oil. The oilmen even wangled a meeting with the President, who was reported to be fully conversant with oil tax shelters, having considered them for his own investments before he took office. "This is no light courtin' here," declares Oil Lobbyist Harold ("Bud") Scoggins. "We mean business...
When Texas Oilmen Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brother William Herbert went headlong into the silver market in 1979 and 1980, they pushed the value of the precious metal from $6 to $50 per oz. and accumulated a hoard worth about $10 billion. That forced up the cost of everything from photographic film to jewelry, and tempted thousands of Americans to sell the family sterling. But the Hunts lost as much as $1 billion in a day in early 1980, when the speculative bubble burst and silver prices collapsed. Five years later, the Hunt family's woes continue to grow...
Like many independent oilmen, Pickens was born within sight of working wells. He grew up in Holdenville, Okla. (pop. 6,300), a cow town surrounded by pastures, where cattle graze alongside active oil pumps. An only child, Pickens was raised on a street of white clapboard houses and green lawns. The family is fond of tracing its ancestry back to the same part of England that produced a distant kinsman, Daniel Boone...
Pickens had enough for the spectacular, six-month battle for Gulf Oil, which began in October 1983. He waged it with $1.3 billion in credit that he raised from bankers and partners like Independent Texas Oilmen Cyril Wagner Jr. and Jack Brown. "Our bid was extremely bold," says Tassin. "It was an incredibly intuitive reading by Boone." Pickens correctly anticipated that Gulf's top executives would underestimate him and fail to erect an effective defense. "They were not street fighters," Pickens says...
...boardroom savvy. While his talk is rich in good-ole-boy phrases like "that dog won't hunt" or "it's better than a poke in the eye with a stick," Pickens is every inch the businessman. In place of the pointed boots and Stetson hats that many independent oilmen wear, he favors sober gray suits, button-down shirts and striped ties. He rarely smiles, but when he does, the grin spreads slowly, almost reluctantly, across his face. Says a friend: "He deals with everyone, from Senators to bank presidents, as if he's telling them fishing stories...