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Article: Oil's well that ends well.(merger between Amoco and British Petroleum)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 15, 1998
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
The merger between BP and Amoco seeks to create a third "super major" in the oil industry. Is size really so important?
DISMISSIVELY, John D. Rockefeller once referred to the early days of the American oil industry as "harvest time": anybody could get rich simply by digging a hole in the ground. His generation, he maintained, lived through harsher times, and got rich through their organisational flair, or not at all. He turned his genius to consolidation, and it made him very rich indeed.
With the price of Brent Crude at its lowest level in real terms for 25 years, harsh times are here again-and so, it appears, is the Rockefeller ...