International Partnership

Few U.S. citizens know much about Creole Petroleum Corp. Yet this U.S.-owned enterprise is the world's No. 2* oil producer. From 2,422 wells across Venezuela, Creole sucks up an average daily flow of 750,000 barrels of black crude, worth about $1,500,000. In the 30 years since it sank its first well, Creole has invested $767 million, and the investment has paid off handsomely. On recent annual grosses of around $500 million, Creole creamed off some $155 million in profits after taxes. Alone, it accounts for more than a third of the consolidated net income of its parent & owner, Standard Oil Co. (N.J.), the world's largest oil organization.

Creole did not always belong to Jersey. The name was engraved originally on the shares of a stock promotion of the '20s called the Creole Syndicate, which had concessions on an expanse of shallow water in Lake Maracaibo, in western Venezuela, covering a tremendous oil reservoir. Jersey bought control of the syndicate, combined it with other Venezuelan holdings into Creole Petroleum Corp., punched holes into Lake Maracaibo's bottom from specially developed drilling barges. Now there are 2,000 lake wells, each a little steel-and-concrete island separated by a strip of water, forming one of the world's great industrial spectacles.

50-50 Profits. Creole is not only a giant producer. It is also a pioneer in the sensitive field of international public relations. Like Britain's ill-fated Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., it is a foreign-owned enterprise within a technically backward state, vulnerable to the 20th Century's upsurge of nationalism. It has met the danger by a policy of 1) equality with Venezuela in profits and 2) concern for Venezuelan personnel.

"The oil in the soil of Venezuela belongs to Venezuela . . ." says a Creole policy directive. "By means of an arrangement that is mutually profitable to Venezuela and ourselves, we are converting the country's greatest natural resource into the country's greatest source of income. This brings us into a partnership

. . ." Creole in 1948 accepted the principle of a 50-50 division of profits with the government.

Chance for the Native. Creole's program to integrate itself with the life of Venezuela includes these main items:

P: Employment of qualified Venezuelans in preference to non-Venezuelans wherever possible. All but 7% of Creole's 14,544 employees are Venezuelans.

P: Compulsory lessons in Spanish for all employees who do not know the language. Housing, schools, hospitals and cradle-to-grave welfare measures for all employees.

P:Cultural contributions, including expensive relief maps for the schools and hundreds of scholarships.

The company's personnel program has just paid off in a notable promotion for its most notable native employee: Guillermo Zuloaga, 47, brilliant geologist and administrator, elevated this month to Creole's board of directors. Stocky, incisive Zuloaga, who earned a Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, taught geology in Caracas' Central University and set up the government bureau known as the Ministry of Mines & Petroleum. Then, in 1939, Zuloaga went to work for Creole as assistant chief geologist.

Soon he was dividing his time between technical chores and a problem that increasingly preoccupied Creole: how not to be nationalized. In 1948 he became geology and public relations representative on Creole's eight-man management committee. He played a key role in the day-to-day evolution of a company policy which is outstanding for U.S. business abroad. As a member of Creole's board, Guillermo Zuloaga is the most important South American in the oil industry,

* Arabian American Oil Co. supplanted Creole as No.1 in July of this year.

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