AUSTRIAN OIL FOR SOVIET

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 7

AUSTRIAN OIL FOR SOVIET

EFFECT OF NEW AGREEMENT

(Special Correspondent NJZJP.A.) LONDON, April 10. “The agreement between Austria and Russia signed in Moscow last week is understood to provide for the delivery of 1,000,000 tons of Austrian oil to the Russians annually for 10 years after the occupation erf Austria ends,” says the Vienna correspondent of the “New York Herald-Tribune.” “This oil deal formed part of the accord between Austria and Russia for a swift conclusion of the Austrian treaty. “On the basis of the current production the oil arrangement means that Austrians will be handing over to the Russians almost 40 per cent, of the output of East Austrian fields. “Onerous as this may appear, the deal is regarded by the Austrian Government as infinitely preferable to the previous provisions in the draft treaty for the Russians to retain 30-year drilling and extraction rights in some fields and 25-year rights at many other East Austrian localities. “There are several reasons why the Austrians are quite ready to go ahead with this plan. First, it means that the Russians will get much less oil than under the previous scheme, and, second, it ends the prospective nightmare of having swarms of Russians remaining in the country and drilling in more than 25 different places, some of them almost on the outskirts of Vienna.

“The Austrians feared that the Russians would use these operations as a base for a wide range of future subversive activities.

The Austrians also expect that the figure of 1,000,000 tons will, after the treaty is signed, soon form a constantly declining percentage of the over-all Austrian oil production. They hope to restore their fields swiftly to the post-war high output of about 3,300,000 tons annually. Moreover, they expect to develop many new fields There is a lot of other promising oil land,” the correspondent says.