Document 3JnK2vXEGedLmxp8aqOz57jg3

MEMORANDUM TO: FROM: DATE: RE: James H. Tourtelotte Keith A. Minoff ECB August 30, 1991 Conversations with Monsanto People in St. Louis Roland H. Dunlop I reached Roland H. Dunlop on August 21, 1991 at (314) 878-8253. His address is 182 Riverbend Drive, Chesterfield, MO 63017. According to Pratt deposition, he was the director of distribution and arranged rail car shipments. From 1969-1978 he was in charge of corporate procurement of railroad equipment and supervised the various groups. He described his involvement as being only the transportation of Monsanto VCM from Texas City. He does not recall when they started or stopped getting from Texas City but there was a period in time when they were receiving VCM from both Texas City and other suppliers. He said that the outside suppliers made their own arrangements for transportation. He recalls that prior to 1968, they were negotiat ing with water transportation facilities but this never went through. I asked him who the other suppliers were. He did recall that /' Dow was a backup or what he described as ir" with Monsanto. It is his opinion that Dow is in bi supply raw materials. On the other hand, B.F. Goodrich and Conoco only sup plied a small percentage because they used it themselves. Mr. 2- - Dunlop also mentioned that Mr. Burnette would probably be the most knowledgeable person to discuss this issue with. With regard to the document retention period, he does not recall specifically but thinks it was only six to seven years. He does not recall ever seeing the Dow contract. When I asked if there was anyone else that he could suggest who might have additional information, he said that both people who had worked for him are dead. I left my name and number if he thinks of anything else. 1252E MEMORANDUM o / C\ TO: PROM: DATE: RE: James H. Tourtelotte Keith A. Minoff ^,, ECB August 30, 1991 Conversations withMonsanto People in St. Louis Herbert Parham I spoke with Herbert Parham on August 21, 1991. I reached Mr. Parham in Hanibul, MO at (314) 221-8527. At the time in question, he was the Director of Raw Materials. It is Mr. Parham's recollection that Dow was the only other company that Monsanto got VCM from. He recalls sitting in on some of the meetings during the negotiations with Dow but that Ron Burnette was the one most involved in the negotiations and would have a better recollection of the details. Mr. Parham kept refer ring to this as a "major contract" which he finally defined as a long-term contract that was negotiated at the corporate rather than at the divisional level. Anything that was not "major" referred to small maintenance contracts, office supplies, things that would be purchased locally. I asked him why the contract itself was dated 1966 but would not become effective until January 1, 1969. Mr. Parham said that they negotiated these types of contracts early on because they would do marketing projection of the need for raw materials and if it was greater than the capacity of Monsanto could furnish they would contract as "insurance" in the event they needed % . -r w 2- - >nal raw materials. He said one of the problems in negotiat ing this type of a contract was that even if Monsanto was able to furnish sufficient amounts of raw materials itself, the terms of the contract required that Monsanto still purchase at least a minimum amount from the outside supplier. According to Mr. Parham, Dow had a lot of excess capacity and was glad to get other buyer for their raw material. Dow was primarily a petrochemical company and did not use the VCM for their own products. The minimum requirements that the contract would call for would be a unit in pounds rather than a percentage of the production needs of the plant. Mr. Parham said that Ron Burnette would really be the one to talk with and gave me his number, which is (314) 843-4520. With regard to the document retention, he did not feel it was too long but believed it was three to five years after the expira tion of the contract. I asked if there was anyone else who might have information and he said the only other person he could think of was Carl Evans and he is dead. I left my name and number with him in case he thinks of anything later on. 1250E