on the state's southern coast. Both mainland and offshore reserves in the North Cook Inlet area will be tapped. Gas from these reserves is more than 98% methane, so no separation of higher cuts will be necessary. Phillips will operate the gas processing plant, whose capacity will be 140 million cubic feet per day. Marathon will handle the shipments to Japan (in refrigerated tankers). The Japanese will construct receiving and storage facilities. Deliveries will be made to Tokyo Gas Co.'s Negishi plant near Yokohama. Tokyo Electric will use part of the gas at a new electric generating plant it will build at Negishi. Extensive exploration of the Alaskan fields since the discovery of oil in the North Cook Inlet basin in 1957 has uncovered 180,000 square miles of potential oil and gas fields within the state. Another 250,000 square miles of potential reserves are located in the coastal waters of Bristol Bay and the Gulf of Alaska. Exploration and development since 1957 have consumed an estimated $700 million.
Kennecott covets Peabody Coal That coal companies are emerging as attractive acquisitions is emphasized by Kennecott Copper's move to buy Peabody Coal Co., St. Louis, one of the giants of the industry, for an estimated $465 million. Officers of Kennecott and Peabody are working on terms of the acquisition agreement. Earlier this summer Ashland Oil & Refining revealed that it has been intensively studying possible coal company acquisitions for some time. And last fall Continental Oil and Consolidation Coal agreed to plans calling for Continental to buy the coal and related assets of Consolidation (C&EN, Oct. 18, 1965, page 2 6 ) . Final shareholder action on the purchase is awaiting a tax ruling from the Treasury Department. Why the surge of interest in an industry which has long had the reputation of being depressed? For one thing coal is fast coming back as a fuel. Last year some 458 million tons of soft coal were consumed domestically, primarily by the steel and utility in-
dustries. This was the highest consumption of soft coal since 1951. Another reason for coaFs new-found popularity is its potential as a source of chemicals. Work is under way on processes for converting coal into liquid feedstocks. Products obtained from such feedstock would include gasoline and a variety of chemicals. Also being studied are various processes for making pipeline gas (methane) from coal (C&EN, April 18, page 68). Pipeline gas would be used to supplement natural gas and could be competitive by the early 1970's. Peabody would cost Kennecott about $47.50 per share of common stock. This would work out to about $465 million. The actual purchase, however, wouldn't take place before next year. Terms still must be approved by both boards and by Peabody shareholders. Also to come are rulings by pertinent government agencies, Kennecott says. Kennecott, one of the world's largest copper producers and fabricators, earned $102 million on sales of $666 million in 1965. Peabody is the larg-
Industry's second quarter generally stronger than same period last year
COMPANY
NET SALES Second Second quarter quarter 1966 1965 (millions of dollars)
Abbott Laboratories $ 13.2 American Cyanamid 493.9 American Enka6 95.7 Calgon Corp. 32.8 Calumet & Hecla 83.9 Clark Equipment Co. 238.2 Corn Products 502.0 Corning Glass Works6 197.1 Du Pont 1,630.0 Fluor Corp.e 125.7 General Tire & Rubber 466.0 Hercules, Inc. 297.8 Hooker Chemical 142.7 Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical 345.4 Mead Johnson & Co. 72.0 Monsanto Co. 840.3 Owens-Corning Fiberglas 176.0 Plymouth Rubber Co.A 15.9 Polymer Corp. (Reading, Pa.) 10.0 Reichhold Chemicals 70.7 Sherwin-Williams Co.? 260.5 Syntex Corp.fc 41.1 U.S. Rubber Co. 667.0 Xerox Corp. 253.5 a b c d e /
$ 11.7 431.0 90.0 28.5 69.7 173.4 462.5 153.5 1,497.0 68.5 440.4 261.2 115.9 286.5 59.5 743.0 152.1 15.8 8.1 59.4 239.7 24.7 617.4 186.4
NET INCOME Second Second quarter quarter 1966 1965 % CHANGE (millions of dollars) +13% +15
+6 +15 +20 +37 +9 +28 +9 +84
+6 +14 +23 +21 +21 +13 +16
+1 +23 +19 +9 +66
+8 +36
Adjusted for the 2-for-1 stock split effective April 1966. 24 weeks ended June 19,1966, and June 20,1965. Adjusted for the 2-for-l stock split effective May 1. Exclusive of a nonrecurring capital gain of $1,279,499 on disposition of part of investment in associated company. Six months ended April 30. Adjusted for the 5% stock dividend and the 2-for-l stock split in 1966.
22 C&EN JULY 25, 1966
$130.4 53.8 9.6 2.7 3.7 13.9 27.0 25.4 216.0 3.4 23.7 25.4 13.5
$116.3 45.7 7.3 2.5 2.3 7.5 25.4 17.7d 214.0 1.8/ 19.2 19.6 11.4
28.2 3.5 75.8 11.0 0.8 0.6 2.9*' 11.8 14.2 24.1 39.7
18.9 2.6 73.0 9.2 1.0 0.4 1.4 10.8 7.0 19.2 27.9
EARNINGS PER SHARE Second Second quarter quarter % CHANGE 1966 1965 +12% +18 +32
+8 +61 +85
+6 +44
+1 +89 +23 +30 +18 +49 +35
+4 +20 -20 +50 +107
+9 +103 +26 +42
$1.00 1.22 1.80 0.76 1.72 1.31 1.23 3.71 4.58 1.65 1.38 1.31 1.41
$0.88 1.04* 1.37 0.68 1.07 0.71' 1.14 2.58
