Article...Gore's Occidental Petroleum Reports Skyrocketing Profits...
Thursday October 19, 2000; 4:12 PM EDT
newsmax.com
Occidental Petroleum, in which Vice President Al Gore's mother Pauline owns between $500,000 and $1 million in stock, has seen its profits go through the roof since the energy crisis hit the United States earlier this year.
The company reported that its earnings had "more than tripled during the third quarter," reported Thursday's Wall Street Journal, "boosted by higher oil and gas prices and increased production during the period."
"Net income for the quarter was $402 million, or $1.09 a diluted share," the paper said, "up from $126 million, or 35 cents a share, a year earlier."
Occidental earned $690 million finding, producing and selling oil and gas in the quarter, up from $279 million," reported Bloomberg News.
In more good news for investors like Mrs. Gore, Occidental reported a revenue increase of 80 percent, from $2.11 billion to $3.81 billion.
The Gore family has a long association with Occidental and its late chairman, Armand Hammer. During his time representing Tennessee in the the U.S. Senate, Gore's father championed the company's interests so enthusiastically, he was nicknamed "the Senator from Occidental."
After Albert Gore Sr. was defeated for re-election in 1970, Hammer paid him a six-figure salary to serve as chairman of the company's Island Creek coal operation. Occidental still operates a zinc mine on the Gore family farm in Carthage, Tenn.
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In 1998, the Clinton-Gore administration allowed Occidental to purchase the Elk Hills strategic oil reserve in Bakersfield, Calif., one of the largest oil and gas fields in the U.S. |
