BILLION-DOLLAR CLUB will soon have its 27th member: Sinclair Oil Corp., with an estimated 1954 gross income of more than $1 billion and profits of about $74 million, some $6,000,000 better than 1953, and equal to $6 per share.

ALASKAN OIL RUSH has begun at Cook Inlet, just south of Anchorage. So far, Standard Oil of California, Shell Oil, Union Oil and Ohio Oil, plus three smaller groups of independents, have leased some 4,500,000 acres at 25-c- an acre, have drilled three exploratory wells to a depth of 8,000 ft., found traces of gas and oil.

WORLD'S TALLEST BUILDING is planned in Brussels for the 1958 World's Fair. Belgian Cabinet has just approved plans for a 2,034-ft. tower (340 feet taller than Manhattan's Empire State Building) to house TV studios, exposition halls, and cafe. Cost: about $20 million.

NORTH AMERICAN CO., once holder of a multi-billion-dollar utility empire (13% of all U.S. power), has finally disappeared from the New York Stock Exchange. After fighting off dissolution under the Holding Company Act for 13 years, North American shareholders last week traded their holdings for 1.7 million shares in St. Louis' Union Electric Co., will soon hand over to Union Electric all remaining assets, including about $700,000 in cash.

SEARS, ROEBUCK OF MEXICO has just added three stores to the six already in operation, is currently working on a tenth, and will also build a $4,320,000 radio and TV manufacturing plant to boost its percentage of Mexican-made (or assembled) items from 80% to 90%.

COMMERCIAL TURBOPROP engine will soon be out on the market for U.S. civilian planes by the Allison division of General Motors. It is the 3,750-h.p. T56 military turboprop now being used to power Lockheed's prototype C-130 troop transport.

ITALIAN OIL WELL has been brought in by Petrosud (privately owned by Italy's Montecatini and Gulf Oil Corp.) with oil at 2,200 ft. in the Abruzzi area 85 miles northeast of Rome, first find in the district. The new well is a big victory for private oilmen in their fight against Italy's state-owned A.G.I.P. (TIME, Nov. 29); the state company had previously explored the area for oil and failed to find a drop.

CANNERY MERGER may be in the works between Consolidated Foods Corp. and Libby, McNeill & Libby, two of the industry's giants. Combined yearly sales of the two companies, which operate 76 major canneries turning out everything from fish to nuts: $446 million.

OFFICE APARTMENTS, for those who want to live close to their work, will be built in Chicago by Real-Estate Man Arthur Rubloft (TIME, Dec. 27). New 15-story building will have 48 duplexes with first floor offices connected to living quarters above by private stairways. Rental for a 595-sq.-ft. office plus studio apartment: $225 monthly.

JAPANESE CARTELS, banned under U.S. occupation, are coming back. Japan's Trade Minister has handed over control of all cotton yarn quality to ten big mills, which produce 80% of the country's total. Official reason: small cotton spinners, who get only 5% of raw cotton imports, have been adulterating their yarn with up to 60% rayon staple and other fibers. The small spinners will now probably be forced out of business, since they can no longer pad out their cotton supplies.

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