Unocal’s Hartley called for a takeover moratorium.

Speaking to a meeting of the National Petroleum Refiners Assn. in San Antonio, Unocal Chairman Fred L. Hartley said: “Clearly, the immediate need is for a congressional moratorium on hostile takeovers--a sort of ‘cooling off’ period while the nation has a chance to pause and think, the speculators have a chance to realize that this speculative chain letter can’t go on forever and Congress has a chance to make needed chances in the tax code and elsewhere.” An investor group led by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has bought 9.8% of Unocal’s stock, repeatedly saying that the purchase is an investment. Unocal has characterized the purchase as a hostile takeover attempt.