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jackals around at all times. Expropriation is not a threat in the Persian
Gulf alone. In the 1970s when I was with Chevron Overseas, our opera-
tions in Venezuela were expropriated without a dime of payment to the
company.

Eventually, some years after we left Arabia, the Saudi govern-
ment took over the oil operations and paid the owner companies a tiny
fraction of what they were worth. They did give the former owner com-
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plied technical personnel to assist in operating the company (now called
Saudi Aramco). By the time I visited in 1980 and 1981, Saudi Arabs
held most of the management positions.

The lesson to be drawn from the above is that a well-prepared
contract is important in doing business overseas, but, in the end, your
legal rights are usually only as good as your current relationship with
the foreign government involved. If oil operations were not highly prof-
itable, only a fool would invest in the overseas oil business.
To understand the background of the political situation in the
Middle East in the 1950s, I will include an incident that happened in
Iraq in 1958. Bechtel Corporation, based in San Francisco, did most of
the major construction projects for Aramco. The head of the Bechtel
Company was Mr. Steve Bechtel. He and his wife came on a visit to
Saudi Arabia in 1958. Thereafter, Mr. Bechtel and his wife left Arabia
accompanied by George Colley, a Vice President of Bechtel, together
with Lou Killian and his wife, Mary. Lou was the Resident Manager
for Bechtel in Saudi Arabia. The Bechtels were seeking construction
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arrival, Mr. Bechtel received a cable message, as a result of which he
changed his plans and Mr. and Mrs. Bechtel left Iraq. The next morning
when the remaining Bechtel group came down to breakfast in the hotel
they became aware that there was considerable hubbub in the streets
outside. Lou Killian had some experience living overseas and realized
that serious problems were occurring. Lou went up to their hotel room
and instructed his wife to come up as well. Mary was something of a

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