31.   The oil giant lobbied for years against the ban, which it says depresses crude oil prices on the West Coast and discourages drilling investments.

32.   The oil giant will be one of the early companies to permit company-stock sales during a blackout.

33.   The purchase had been held up by objections from Alaskan authorities who were concerned that the resulting oil giant would be in an overwhelmingly strong position there.

34.   The tapes triggered a national outcry and boycott threats that pressured the White Plains, New York-based oil giant into settling.

35.   The San Francisco oil giant joined other major oil companies in reporting higher profits.

36.   The U.S. government, it is presumed, sides with its oil giants.

37.   With that, Lundwall set the stage for a highly publicized scandal at Texaco, the international oil giant based in White Plains.

38.   Yet for those investors who are willing to bet that the Northern California oil giant is ripe for a takeover, the spoils could be huge.

39.   Worldwide assets of the two oil giants.

40.   Yukos enlisted help from the Western oil services giant, Schlumberger, to improve production.