STEEL FOR OIL PIPELINE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25301, 29 September 1947, Page 7

STEEL FOR OIL PIPELINE

Licence For Export From U.S. CONSTRUCTION IN MIDDLE EAST (N.Z- Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Sept. 27. The United States Commerce De?artment has announced that it has icensed the Trans-Arafcian Pipeline Company to ship 20,000 tons of steel to Saudi Arabia between October and December for an oil pipeline 1140 miles long, from Abquaiq, in Saudi Arabia, to the Mediterranean Sea near Sidon, in Lebanon. The pipeline has been designed to transport 300,CQQ barrels of crud e Qil a day. It could, if necessary, be expanded to carry 400 000 barrels a day. The line will pass through Saudi Arabia, Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Negotiations with all these countries have been concluded, and the project can be undertaken immediately. The Commerce Department described the area as rich in oil, with proved reserves estimated to .be as large as, or larger than, the proved reserves of the entire Western Hemisphere. The department, replying to criticism of the licence on the ground that the steel was needed in rhe United States, said that the “strategical, political and economic interests of the United States” had prompted its action.

The Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company, which is American-owned, is a subsidiary of the Arabian-American Oil Company, which was formed by a group, of major American pil firms interested in the Saudi Arabian wells. The Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, has a dominant interest in the parent company. a