1984 - (March 5) Texaco and ECL reach agreement in which Texaco grants ECL the right to explore for minerals on 118,000 acres in the Sabine Refuge. Agreement not filed until May 25. ECL also has agreement with Texas International Petroleum Co. of Tulsa, Okla., to partner with TIPCO on some controversial leases awarded by the state while Edwards was out of office. At the awards Edwards represented TIPCO and Hul, (William that is), served as a consultant.

1984 - (March 10) Edwards receives second batch of stock in ECL, value $625,000.

1984 - (March 12) Edwards takes office and appoints Hul head of Natural Recources Department. Hul owns ECL.

1984 - (April 2) Hul fires independent auditors saying it is a cost-cutting measure. Auditors already paid $206,000 on a $250,000 contract. Texaco admitted in Jan. 84 they still owed 1.8 million more on lease 340. Who would admit that?

1984 - (April 12) Ernst & Whinney issue audit report saying Texaco owes between $100 and $300 million. Hul says the state might owe Texaco $11,000.

1984 - (Sept.) Federal investigators begun digging into Dept. of Natural Resources, Hul's home base. Those under observation were: Hul, Stephen Edwards, David Edwards, Marion and Nolan Edwards, Roussel, Miller, Jack Kent, Tommy (Lightbulb) Powell, Louis Lambert, Broadhurst, David Lensing, Ted Jones, John Camp.

1984 - Hul resigns office appointed.

1984 - (Oct.) Mineral Board orders Texaco to come up with a new plan of returning thousands of acres of undeveloped land by April 1, 1986. W.T. Burton stockholders object. Board member Joe R. Palermo, Jr. says his fact-finding committee will give Texaco three more months, and just might be willing to swap higher royalties for land in question.

1987 - State sues Texaco, claims Texaco owes $475 million and "Louisiana Land & Exploration" owes $550 million.

1987 - Pennzoil sues Texaco for $11 billion. Texaco takes bankruptcy, retains its leases. Judge Parker rules the leases are contracts that must be continued in order for the company to work itself out of Chapter 11. Some estimates claim that if Louisiana would have reclaimed all Texaco leases it would have been worth over $10 billion.

Bossier-Press Tribune Bossier City, Louisiana Bob Barton 3-18-94