OIL & GAS: Houston to Atlantic

OIL & GAS

In the past two years, one of the fastest performers on the New York Stock Exchange has been middle-sized Houston Oil, which has climbed from 65 to 155. The big reason for the climb was a persistent rumor that the company would be bought up at a fat price by one of the oil giants. Last week rumor became fact. Houston Oil announced that, subject to stockholder approval, it was selling all its holdings for $224,654,265, or $165 per share for its 1,361,541 outstanding shares. Atlantic Refining Co., 13th largest U.S. oil company, will take over all Houston’s gas and oil properties (leases on 696,638 acres of oil lands), a daily output of 17.000 bbls. of oil, another 450 million cu. ft. of natural gas, plus the Houston Pipe Line Co., which feeds natural gas into Gulf cities through a 715-mile pipeline. TIME Inc. owns 11% of Houston Oil’s stock and is joint owner with Houston of the East Texas Pulp and Paper Co. TIME is negotiating to buy 100% of the East Texas Co., which operates a $33 million pulp-and-paper mill (sulphate pulp and paperboard), and Houston’s Southwestern Settlement and Development Corp., which owns 585,000 acres of timberland to supply the mill.