AN OIL WAR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 82, 17 January 1928, Page 5

AN OIL WAR.

PURCHASES FROM RUSSIA.

THE AMERICAN VIEW

NEW YORK, January 16. The Standard Oil Company has replied 1 to Sir Henri Deterding’s statements. 'lt states that neither the American nor the British Government forbids trade with the Soviet that the long distance between the United States and India made the purchase of Russian oil for the Indian markets more economical; that subsidiaries of the Royal Dutch and Shell Companies, as late as 1925, purchased considerable Russian oil; that the importation of Russian oil constitutes no menace to the Indian or Burmese oil industry; that price-cutting and secret rebates instituted by the Royal Dutcli and Shell in India will cost the Royal Dutch, Shell and Burma companies approximately 2,750,000 dollars, and the Standard Oil Company of New York approximately 4,000,000 dollars, but that the .latter will not be swerved from its policy, “by such desperate, destructive measures as are being followed in India and are being threatened in other parts of the world ”

NO OFFICIAL INTERVENTION. (A.P.A. and “Sun” Cables.) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) WASHINGTON, January 16. The Secretary for Commerce (Mr H. C. Hoover) declared that the Department of Commerce does not intend to interfere in the reported dispute between the Standard Oil and Royal Dutch and' Shell Companies. A violent struggle for supremacy in the world’s oil markets, with a long and costly war among the petroleum kings, is imminent, states the “Daily Express,” on November 23. Sir Henri Deterding, Director of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, has “scornfully declined” to discuss the question of the purchase of Russian oil with the Standard Oil Com pa nv of New York and the Vacuum Oil Company. He has determined to “give no quarter” and has rejected the offer of the Standard Oil of New Jersey to act as mediator. The Standard Oil of New York has replied to Sir Henri by making a new contract with Soviet Russia, through the Amtorg Trading Company, for a minimum of 360,000 tons of oil over a period of six months. This will be used to supply the company’s Near East markets, it being specially stated that, no Russian oil will replace American oil in the world markets. This makes the third Russian oil contract signed since last year by the Standard Oil Company, involving a total of 1,400,000 tons of oil, of a total value of £8,000,000. It is stated that the Royal Dutch Company has started a price-cutting war against the Standard Oil Company of New York in India, and that the company intends to extend the war, possibly eyen into New York State,