Two Texas companies filed a $1-billion lawsuit...

Two Texas companies filed a $1-billion lawsuit charging that a member of the Hunt family used fraudulent means to deprive them of oil finds in North Yemen. Dorchester Master Limited Partnership and Arabian Shield Development Co. filed suit in U.S. district court in Dallas against Ray Hunt, his Hunt Oil Co. and Yemen-Hunt Oil Co. They claim $1 billion in damages. Ray Hunt is a half-brother of Texas oil millionaires Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt, but is not involved in their business dealings. He announced in mid-1984 that his company had made a massive oil find in North Yemen. The plaintiffs charged that Hunt wrongfully gained access to their geological data on the large Ma-Rib oil field in the Safir Basin and subsequently caused the government of North Yemen to renege on its concession agreement with them. Recoverable reserves in the Ma-Rib field are estimated at about 400 million barrels of crude oil. Production is expected to start late this year at about 200,000 barrels per day.