REOPENING OF ABADAN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27273, 13 February 1954, Page 7

REOPENING OF ABADAN

Examination By Oil Experts

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TEHERAN, February 11.

Twenty oil experts, representing eight major oil companies, arrived at Abadan by air today to examine the refinery and oilfields formerly operated by the Anglo-Iran iaii Oil Company. The mission, whose members represent oil companies which plan to market Persian oil after an agreement between Britain and Persia, will spend 10 days on the survey. The group includes seven AngloIranian officials and representatives of Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Oil (New Jersey),, Socony Vacuum, Gulf Oil, California Oil, Texas Oil and the Companie Francaise de Petroles. During their visit the experts will estimate the cost and time required to reopen the Abadan oil area and other fields in southern Persia.

Persia’s oil industry has lain semidormant since the British owned fields were nationalised nearly three years ago.

A Socony Vacuum official said the American companies were hopeful of a settlement and they hoped that co-operation would make Persian oil flow soon. The main deadlock to the negotiations was finding a world market for Persian oil, since some European countries could not afford to buy dollar oil, but some kind of American subsidy might be possible.