Word: wildcats
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...drilling. Under the terms of last month's decree designed to stimulate development of the island's oil resources, the loan need not be repaid unless the prospectors strike oil. With close to a million acres under lease in the central Jatibonico Basin, where a wildcat syndicate last May opened up the country's first sizable oilfield, Cuban-Colombian agreed last week to drill six 4,000-ft. wells when geological surveys are completed...
When it comes to gambling on wildcat stock schemes, Australians take a back seat to few other people. They have tossed an estimated $202 million into 16 oil-exploration companies, although only three have sunk wells and only one (controlled by the California Texas Corp.) has struck oil. They have also invested $22 million in twelve uranium companies, of which only three are producing ore. A speculative boom sent stock prices so high this year that government officials felt compelled to issue warnings against the excesses. Last week the warnings proved wise...
...Last week's wildcat strike by 6,000 A.F.L. building workers slowed new construction at Oak Ridge but did not affect production...
Once, Richardson hauled Murchison out of an evening poker game to investigate a wildcat well he had heard about. They raced to the closely guarded site and, by bluffing guards, got near enough to smell oil. Next day they spent $50,000 buying leases in the area. Twenty-four hours later, they sold the leases...
Then Murchison made the decision that made him rich: he started drilling. Through a system of "financin' by finaglin'," i-e-, getting money in exchange for a share of one lease, a rig in exchange for a share of another, he formed a new partnership, started drilling wildcat wells at the rate of 50 or 60 a year. Murchison always put aside a few shares for himself. He struck it lucky and his income soared to $30,000 a month. In 1925 he sold his oil interests for some $5.000,000, retired to San Antonio...