Missions to Teheran

Young, globe-trotting Herbert Hoover Jr., 41, arrived in Washington from the Middle East and promptly hurried to the complicated grey bird's-nest that is the State Department. Hoover's firm, United Engineering Corp., S.A., has been advising the oil-conscious Iranian Government on its oil policies since last June. By last week Teheran oil politics were gushing over. Three U.S. companies--Standard Oil Co. (N.J.), Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. Inc. and Sinclair Oil Corp.--were seeking oil concessions from suave, car-mad Mohammed Shah Pahlavi in competition with the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., Ltd., the only company operating in Iran. The Royal-Dutch Shell group was reported to be angling for similar concessions. And from Moscow came word that a Soviet mission has arrived in Teheran to negotiate a Russian oil concession.

This jockeying of the Big Three for new fields ran headlong into politics in Iran, now bubbling with feeling against foreigners. In recognition of this, the Shah bluntly told oilmen that no new concessions will be granted till war's end and all foreign troops leave the country. But oilmen took this with a grain of political salt. In prewar years, roughly 20% of Iranian' revenue came from royalties and taxes on oil pumped from the south Iran fields of the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., Ltd. If new fields are opened up, Iran's national income will soar.

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