BRITAIN’S OIL SUPPLIES

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28162, 28 December 1956, Page 6

BRITAIN’S OIL SUPPLIES

“Solution Within Six Months” (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, Dec. 27. Mr E. H. O. Elkington, who recently retired as a London director of the British Petroleum Company, Ltd., and is making a holiday visit to New Zealand, predicted today that Britain’s oil supply troubles would be well on the way to solution within six months. He based his “cautious optimism” mainly on two points: that leaders of oil-producing: Middle East countries were “calming down” in the realisation that their oil wjas of no use to them if it stayed in the ground; and that production of mammoth tankers would help in getting Middle East oil to Western Europe, regardless of the Suez Canal. Mr Elkington said that even before the Middle East disturbance the canal was becoming outmoded by really big tankers. Discussing the effect on costs of the closing of the canal, he said he thought it could be taken for granted that companies would not acquire huge tankers without having thoroughly investigated their economics. There were 219 tankers at present being built or booked for building, and of these 58 were of British register, added Mr Elkington.