The Troubleshooters

After Mogul's representative dies in the desert, Brian Stead sends his troubleshooter Robert Driscoll to take over talks for a valuable Middle East oil concession. Driscoll's brash approach offends Charles Andrews, the veteran area manager, who had hoped to end his long career by winning the deal himself. With an American rival closing in, Driscoll brushes aside local advice and presses the sheik for a quick agreement.

Personnel officer Derek Prentice grows worried that Ron Smith, the safety officer at a Mogul refinery, is becoming mentally unstable. Smith, a solitary man, has begun a romance with Prentice's secretary Gwyneth Evans, who refuses to report on him. With royalty due to tour the refinery, Prentice's attempt to have Smith transferred is blocked by his superiors and tension between the two men comes to a head.

Ordered by the government to surrender one of its two exploration areas in West Africa, Mogul sends Peter Thornton to oversee the handover. Geologist Sam Okeke is sure the coastal swamps hold oil and wins approval for a speculative well first. But Okeke is burdened by doubts about staking his career on one call, guilt over his ailing friend Alan Boyd in the field, and pressure from his tribal chief to leave the company.

At 55, hard-living tanker seaman Tosh Brinkwater resolves to settle down as his partner Nora prepares to give birth. He turns to his old shipmate Brian Stead, who promises to find him quiet work on land and a flight home in time for the baby. Then a supertanker breaks down, and Robert Driscoll's plan to reroute smaller vessels to cover its cargo puts Tosh's homecoming in doubt.

Mogul has never sold oil in Germany, so Brian Stead sends Robert Driscoll and Willy Izard to assess the market. The choice lies between buying the small independent firm E.V.A. and agreeing a crude oil supply deal with the much larger Deutsche Petrole. Both companies set out to court Driscoll, one with the nightlife of Hamburg and the other with sophistication and a hint of decadence.

Fresh from university, David Izard starts work as a Mogul geologist in Libya under veteran Chris Darnley, who suspects the young man owes his post to his father Willy, Mogul's company secretary. Darnley's distrust of head office deepens when Peter Thornton comes to Tripoli to overhaul the exploration effort. On a survey deep in the desert, David is eager to prove himself, and the party begins to take risks.

Former advertising man Robert Driscoll proposes lifting Mogul's image by putting money into a grand prix team, a plan Brian Stead opposes on both moral and commercial grounds. Driscoll gains support from the managing director and from ambitious account executive Hillary Dawson. The team they favour has a promising new car but no money, and much rests on a demonstration run at Goodwood.

Mogul's new rig is almost finished at a yard on the Tyne when foreman Rogers dismisses Willy Murtagh for unsafe work. Willy, a vulnerable young man whose late father was a respected union leader, is a favourite of the workforce, and the men respond with a work to rule. Sent north by Brian Stead, Peter Thornton and Derek Prentice try to settle the dispute before it turns into a full strike.

Sandra Spratt leaves her father's filling station forecourt behind when she is chosen as Miss Mogul, the face of a costly campaign to boost petrol sales. Derek Prentice is assigned to look after her and make sure she carries out her duties, a task that brings him moral and emotional difficulties. Meanwhile her boyfriend Instant Turner and her grandmother are determined to bring her home.

Robert Driscoll is assessing Mojida, an Iroquois who has risen to take charge of Mogul drilling in the far north of Canada, as a possible troubleshooter. Mojida's deputy Godin is French Canadian, heir to an old enmity, and the two disagree over how to handle a gas pocket the rig has struck. While Mojida is away meeting Driscoll in New York, Godin decides to proceed his own way.

Peter Thornton expects an easy trip when he is sent to present Mogul's Driver of the Year award at a depot outside Newcastle. After his car fails on the road, he accepts a ride with Chas Wilson, a cheerful tanker driver whose creed is never to be tied down. A string of mishaps follows, and Thornton finds himself drawn into Chas's carefree outlook on life.

Brian Stead, now deputy managing director, faces a campaign to unseat him led by financial director Martin Lister. A heart scare while touring the Middle East hands his rivals fresh ammunition, and Stead dismays his allies by stepping back from the fight. Travelling home at leisure with secretary Jane Webb, he grows fond of her and begins to imagine a quiet retirement.