The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin

Author:Daniel Yergin [Yergin, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: History, General, Social Science, history; petroleum industry; World War I; World War II; world politics
ISBN: 9781847376466
Google: opmdPwAACAAJ
Amazon: 1439110123
Barnesnoble: 1439110123
Goodreads: 7629060
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1990-01-01T23:00:00+00:00

Gulbenkian Again

The CFP litigation was still pending. But France had many other things on its political agenda with the United States that it wanted to pursue; and by May of 1947, a deal had been worked out that improved the position of the French in the Iraq Petroleum Company. And, of course, CFP would, in exchange, withdraw its suit.

Gulbenkian, as usual, was another matter. Installed in a first-floor suite in Lisbon's venerable Hotel Aviz, Gulbenkian kept to his flint-nosed habits. Because it was cheaper, he no longer maintained a car and chauffeur, but hired a driver to take him into the country for his daily walk, carefully checking the odometer on the car to make sure he was not being charged for someone else's trips. "Gulbenkian may be regarded as a man of his word once this has been given," observed a British official. "The difficulty lies in obtaining it. The ability to compromise is not one of his attributes." The official could not help adding that "Gulbenkian's idea of his own financial integrity takes on a peculiar form when it comes to taxation, the avoidance of which constitutes one of his major activities." He escaped income taxes in France and Portugal by maintaining an appointment with the Iranian legation. In order to avoid property tax on his mansion in Paris, he turned a small part of it into a picture gallery. And when he sold the Ritz Hotel in Paris, he insisted on terms that provided that a suite be permanently reserved for him, so that he could always claim that he was "in transit" while in Paris—thus further avoiding French taxation.

Gulbenkian brought this same infuriating attention to detail, along with his reluctance to compromise and his intense powers of concentration, to the struggle over the Red Line Agreement. Though the French had dropped their suit, Gulbenkian was willing to wash every last piece of dirty linen in public if necessary. He filed suit in a British court. Jersey and Socony responded with countersuits.

The case received wide publicity, which helped Gulbenkian in his counterattack against Jersey and Socony. After all, it was not he, but the American companies that had to worry about the Justice Department and public opinion. Still, there was a side effect of the notoriety that he very definitely found distasteful. Owing to his short stature, he had ordered a special platform built in the restaurant of the Hotel Aviz, so that he could eat his lunch and survey the scene at the same time. As the publicity from the case increased, "Mr. Gulbenkian at the Hotel Aviz" became one of the tourist "musts" of Lisbon, along with the bullfights. He objected, but there was nothing much he could do about it.

For well over a year, negotiators shuttled back and forth from New York to London to Lisbon, looking for a compromise. Now the next generation of oil men and lawyers had the opportunity to learn how exasperating it was to deal with Calouste Gulbenkian. "It

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