Roy M. Huffington dead at 90: Report

Well-known Houston oil man, former ambassador to Austria, and philanthropist Roy M. Huffington died Friday night while travelling abroad, The Associated Press reported. He was 90.

Huffington began his career as a geologist before serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II. When he returned, Huffington became a field geologist for Humble Oil Co. He later established his own gas and oil exploration company, Huffco., in 1956.

The company struck a groundbreaking production-sharing contract with the government of Indonesia to explore oil in Kutai Basin of Mahakam Delta, East Kalimantan. Huffco discovered a giant natural gas reserve at Badak gas field in 1972.

The company sold for roughly $600 million in the early 1990s, after Huffington accepted the post as U.S. ambassador to Austria.

Huffington talked about the Indonesian deal in a February interview with the Houston Chronicle.

"I was interested in Indonesia because no oil and gas exploration had been done there for a significant period of time. Fortunately, everything turned out to be very good," he said. "Major companies at that time didn't like production-sharing contracts. They wanted to own (the oil and gas) in the ground, but the Asians said no, you get your money back in a share of the profits. I got in at a very proper time.

"Whether it's war, love or business, you can lose the battle, the girl or the business deal, so my timing happened to be very good on that." (*)