Little Partner Out

Some 20 years ago a high-calibre Colombian general named Virgilio Barco journeyed to Manhattan to sell an oil concession he held on 1,200,000 acres of his native jungle, dropped into the Standard Oil Building. Legend is that he got no farther than the gate: suspicious of his torrent of Spanish, the bomb-conscious guards summarily ejected him through the door. Thereafter the proud Colombian refused to have any dealing with Standard Oil of New Jersey. His concession was snapped up by Promoter Carl Kendriok MacFadden for his Carib Syndicate, Ltd., which kept a minority interest, sold the rest to Henry Latham Doherty's Cities Service Co.

Carib Syndicate's interest, now 21%, has furnished about the only continuity in the subsequent colorful Barco story. Promoter MacFadden has long since been out of the company. Oilman Doherty tired of jungle oil in 1926, sold out his majority interest to Andrew William Mellon's Gulf Oil Corp. Then the concession was canceled, litigated, finally granted anew. This year, with not a barrel of oil yet delivered from the fabulous concession, Mr. Mellon sold out to Texas Corp. and Socony-Vacuum for some $12,500,000 (TIME, May 4).

Texaco and Socony were ready to spend the big money that the Barco needs. A pipeline over the mountains to the sea (more than 200 miles) may cost $12,000,000. Little Carib Syndicate found itself sitting in on a game it could not afford to play, for unless it shared development expenses in proportion to its one-fifth interest, that interest would be gradually shaved down to an insignificant figure. At the Barco table on one side was Texaco's Chairman Torkild Rieber with $473,000,-000 in assets beside him, on the other Socony's President John Albert Brown with a stack of oil chips worth $789,000,000.

Carib's assets foot up to a mere $1,200,000, three-fourths of which is represented by its present stake in the Barco game. An investing company, it has only one full-time official Secretary & Treasurer Charles Ferris French. This autumn he was suddenly presented with an opportunity to withdraw gracefully from the Barco game with winnings of more than 100% on the ante. An undisclosed group offered $2,000,000 for the Barco interest. Informed of the facts last week, the stock-holders accepted with alacrity. With that $2,000,000 Carib will look for another game more suited to its resources.

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