The Unconquerable Captain

Among world oilmen, Norwegian-born Torkild ("Cap") Rieber, a hardfisted, hard-swearing ex-sailor, is an operator whose shrewd deals and big projects have made him something of a legend in the industry. It was Rieber who landed the famous Barco concession in Colombia for the Texas Co.. built a mile-high pipeline across the Andes, wangled a half-interest for Texaco in the rich Bahrein fields on the Persian Gulf. After he resigned as Texaco chairman in 1940. he carved a new career for himself as boss of Barber Oil Corp.

Last week, at 71, Cap Rieber had another big deal cooking. Fast-growing Barber Oil had agreed to sell part of its stock (125,000 of its 500,000 shares) in oil-rich American Republics Corp., which Rieber also runs (as chairman). The buyer: Tennessee Gas Transmission Co.'s President

Gardiner Symonds, 49, second biggest U.S. gas-pipeline operator by volume. Tennessee Gas is paying $8,000,000 to Barber for stock which it bought for $3,100,000. The deal, said Symonds, is the first step toward a contemplated merger of American Republics and Tennessee Gas's oil-and gas-producing subsidiary, Tennessee Production Co.

The proposed wedding would marry two Texas oil and gas properties with big potentials. Tennessee Production already has interests in 509 producing wells on 57,000 acres, and holds 249,000 additional unproved acres. American Republics is owner (with Houston Oil) of 800,000 Texas acres which have already yielded rich finds of oil, though development has hardly been started. Moreover, American Republics' land is also believed to have big gas reserves. Thus the deal would give Symonds an assured source of gas for Tennessee's pipelines, and assure him Rieber's master hand in operating ,the oil properties.

The Old Viking. Cap Rieber came up in the rough & tumble school of oil where a boss often had to win his arguments with his fists. He quit his native Norway at 15 to go to sea in sailing vessels, got into tankers just as Spindletop and the Auto Age gave the U.S. oil industry its biggest boost. He became a tanker captain for _ the fledgling Texas Co., later built up its tanker fleet and ran Texaco's overseas sales. He became chairman of the board in 1935 arid made deals all over the world to increase Texaco's own oil production.

As World War II began, Cap Rieber managed to get some German-built tankers in exchange for blocked currency. Even though the deal was approved by the warring British (who thereby chartered two of Texaco's tankers), it set off yelps that he was "pro-Nazi." Rather than risk hurting the company. Rieber resigned with a sailor's cheerful certainty that "no matter how fierce a storm may come, it always calms down in the end."

The New Career. The storm calmed after one of the most famed U.S. Jewish families, the Guggenheims, hired him to boss their floundering, money-losing Barber Asphalt Corp. Rieber sold off its uneconomic properties (including Trinidad's asphalt lake), explored other properties for oil, bought tankers, built the present Barber Oil Corp. Barber stock, which sold for $6-$7 a share when he took over, now sells for the equivalent of $113.50 (counting a split). On $12.1 million sales last year, Rieber's managerial sorcery netted $3,200,000 profits after taxes.

While rebuilding Barber, Rieber kept his eye on American Republics, founded by the late J. S. Cullinan, one of Rieber's old Texaco bosses. In 1946, after the stock market slump had knocked American Republics shares down to $11.50, Rieber began spending some of Barber's idle cash picking them up. By 1952 he had acquired 33 1/3% of the stock for an average price of $25. By so doing, he made American Republics a bigger tail than the Barber dog. Last year the company grossed $22.2 million, netted a thumping $5,200,000 after taxes. Last week's deal will still leave Barber holding 25% of American Republics--and Rieber still firmly in control.

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