Allah Be Praised

In the Persian Gulf, by the shore of the Neutral Zone of Kuwait, lies a battered old World War II LST, a displaced veteran of the invasion of Leyte. For three years it has served as a forward outpost of one of the oil industry's most famous field bosses, James MacPherson, 62, as he hunted for oil ashore. At a cost of $30 million, MacPherson's long-futile quest became the most expensive in Middle East history. After five dry holes, oilmen all over the Middle East joked: "Four more holes will give Mac a nine-hole golf course." From Cairo to Dhahran, their stock greeting became: "Mac, struck anything yet?" The answer was always no.

Last week the radiotelephone that links up MacPherson's headquarters with his drillers in the field crackled out the news that oil was struck at last. MacPherson sped to the drilling site, found that the drills, at 3,500 ft., had bit into an oil pool that looked every bit as rich as the world's richest, the fabulous Burgan sands in Kuwait proper, 20 miles to the north of the Neutral Zone.

All oilmen had wondered whether any oil lies between the Kuwait sands and Arabian American Oil Co.'s fields to the south (see map). MacPherson's strike gave the answer. Even those who had no financial interest were elated. Wired Aramco's Middle East boss of Arab affairs, Bill Eddy, to MacPherson: HALLELUJAH.

Big Chips. Nobody was more relieved than American Independent Oil Co.'s President Ralph K. Davies, 55, the man who raised the $30 million for the gamble. With nine other independent producers, Davies formed Aminoil in 1947 to give independents, as well as majors, a Middle East concession. Gulf and Anglo-Iranian had sewed up Kuwait; Aramco (jointly owned by Standard of California, Texas, Jersey Standard and Socony-Vacuum) had a grip on Saudi Arabia. But nobody had the "no man's land" between--the Neutral Zone jointly run by the Sheiks of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Davies leased the Sheik of Kuwait's half interest for $7.2 million, a price that made oilmen's eyes pop, plus a royalty of 34-c- a barrel, the highest ever offered up to then. Many had chuckled ever since at Davies' expensive "bargain."

Indivisible Halves. Davies, a onetime California Standard vice president, knew that MacPherson, another Socal veteran, was the right man to do his drilling. MacPherson was already running Aramco's operations, had the biggest oil job in the Middle East. But MacPherson, feeling hemmed in by remote-control corporate rule, took Old Friend Davies' offer. English-born MacPherson first got to know the Middle East when he served in General Allenby's Palestine army in World War I. Meanwhile Pacific Western Oil's* J. Paul Getty bought up the other half of the Neutral Zone's concession from King Ibn Saud for $10.5 million. Since the halves are indivisible (i.e., each alike share in any oil found anywhere in the zone). Davies and Getty pooled their operations, jointly paid for MacPherson's drilling.

MacPherson's gamble isn't completely won. He has yet to build a 20-mile pipeline to get the oil out. He has to drill other "step-out" wells to see how far the rich field extends. But after his long, heartbreaking hunt, he shared the sentiments of Kuwait's Sheik Abdullah bin Salim al Sabah, who, when told of the strike, said: "Thanks to Allah. All our wishes have come true."

*Whose stock jumped 13 3/4 points in a week.

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