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Last week the government said that "several of the most prominent U.S. oil companies are negotiating with the French for Sahara concessions." Texas Independent N. Bunker Hunt, son of H. L. Hunt, and Houston's Texas Gulf Producing Co. are dickering for a piece of the desert. Cities Service Co. and Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) say they are "interested" in making a Sahara oil deal. The five-year leases that French oil companies took in 1952 will expire this September, and some 27 million acres of potential oil lands that these companies did not exploit will be up for lease. U.S. oilmen guess that the French will sell about a 45% interest to U.S. companies and to Royal Dutch Petroleum, which is already producing in the Sahara.
To date, combines made up of the Royal Dutch-Shell group, the French government and French oil companies have pumped $135 million into the Sahara.
They plan to invest $700 million there in the next four years, build pipelines from Hassi Messaoud and oil-rich Edjelé to coastal ports. Said French Chief Engineer Christian Redron at Hassi Messaoud: "In a few years we may no longer have to depend on the whims of a Nasser."