OIL: Not Guilty

After five years of waiting, the U.S. oil industry finally got a lower court verdict on suits brought against three of its big gest companies by the Government. The defendants: Jersey Standard, Socony-Mobil, Caltex (owned jointly by the Texas Co. and Standard of California) and six subsidiaries. The charge: price-gouging to the tune of $111.5 million on Middle East oil supplied to Europe under Marshall Plan financing. Between 1949 and 1952, the Government charged, the companies sold oil to the Economic Cooperation Administration at $1.75 per bbl.

overseas, while billing their own sales to the U.S. at $1.43, thus breaking...

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