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issued to
bearer, as follows– Class of Capital Total amount issued Amount issued to
bearer.
    Type of licence applied for,
and if a production licence, reference number(s) of the block(s) is respect whereof
the application is made.
     
    I/We hereby declare that the
information given above or annexed to this application is correct.
     
    Signature of Applicant(s)
    or in the case of a body
corporate,
    of a
duly authorised officer whose capacity is to be stated.
    To the Secretary, Ministry of
Power, London, S. W. 1.
    Harvey was not British, none of his
companies was British and he knew he would have presentation problems. He
decided that his application must be backed by a British bank and that he must
set up a company whose directors would give confidence to the British
Government.
    With this in mind, early in 1964 he
registered a company in England called Discovery Oil, using Malcolm, Bottnick
and Davis as his solicitors and Barclays Bank as bankers, as they were already
The Lincoln Trust’s representatives in Europe. Lord Hunn isett became chairman
and several distinguished men joined the Board, including two ex-Members of
Parliament (who had lost their seats when the Labour Party won the 1964
election). When Harvey discovered how stringent the rules were for setting up a
public company in England, he decided to launch the main company on the
Canadian Stock Exchange and to use the English company only as a subsidiary.
Discovery Oil issued 2,000,000 ten-cent shares at fifty cents, which were all
acquired for Harvey by nominees. He also deposited $500,000 in the Lombard
Street branch of Barclays Bank.
    Having thus created the front, Harvey then
used Lord Hunnisett to apply for the licence from the British Government. The
new Labour government elected in October 1964 were no
more aware of the significance of North Sea oil than the earlier Conservative
administration. The government’s requirements for a licence were a rent of £12,000
a year for the first six years, and 12 ½ percent revenue tax with a further
capital gains tax on profits, but as Harvey’s plan did not allow for any
company profit, that was not going to be a problem.
    On the May 22, 1965, the Minister of Power
published in the London Gazette the
name of Discovery Oil among the fifty-two companies granted production
licences. On August 3, 1965, Statutory Instrument No. 1531 allocated the actual
areas. Discovery Oil was
    51° 50’ 00” N : 2°
30’ 20” E, a site adjacent to one of British Petroleum’s holdings.
    Hopefully, Harvey waited for one of the
companies who had acquired North Sea sites to strike oil. It was a longish
wait: not until June 1970 did British Petroleum make a big commercial strike in
their Forties Field. Harvey was on to another winner, and set the second part
of his plan in motion.
    Early in 1972 he hired an oil rig, which,
with much flourish and publicity, he had towed out to the Discovery Oil site.
He hired the rig on the basis of being able to renew the contract if he made a
successful strike, and with the minimum number of people allowed by the
government regulations, they proceeded to drill to 6,000 feet. After this
drilling had been completed, he released from employment all those involved,
but told Reading & Bates, from whom he had rented the rig, that he would be
requiring it again in the near future and therefore would continue to pay the
rental.
    Harvey then bought Discovery Oil shares on
the market at the rate of a few thousand a day for the next two months from his
own nominees, and whenever the financial journalists of the British Press rang
to ask why these shares were steadily rising, the young public relations
officer at Discovery Oil’s office said, as briefed, he had no comment to make
at present but they would be making a press statement in the near future; some
newspapers put two and two together and made about fifteen. The shares climbed
steadily from fifty cents to nearly three dollars. At the same rime