Little U.S. Optimism On Suez Opening

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28250, 11 April 1957, Page 13

Little U.S. Optimism On Suez Opening

[Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER] WASHINGTON, April 9. Two important and allegedly contradictory elements are in the news—oil and water. The whole Middle East crisis is summed up in three letters “O-I-L” and whatever the Administration feels about it, business and industry do not seem very optimistic.

United Nations Officials are preening themselves on reopening the canal as if all is now well with the world, but business and industry, considering upon what terms the canal will now be usable, are not so confident on that score. Their feelings seem to be summed up by a sober-minded journal, devoted to interests of business, industry and finance. “Business Week.”

It says, "Nasser is winning a victory on the Suez Canal. Neither the Western capitals nor the maritime users of the canal will have any real say in how the Egyptians run the canal from here on out.” “Little or no headway has been made in giving the United Nations any new role in controlling ArabEgyptian hostility.’ ’ All this echoes the note of pessimism here about United States correspondence with Egypt about the canal. Consequently the thought centres more and more on methods of by-passing the canal. Tanker building goes on apace and it is reported that there are already dockage facilities in the Persian Gulf ports for tankers up to 65.000 tons. Moreover, experts from eight major international oil companies are working out details for one of the most ambitious construction projects ever contemplated. This is a pipeline to link the oilfields in Eastern Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to a Turkish terminal on the Mediterranean.

The cost of this project is estimated at 800 million dollars and its designers estimate that it would deliver a million barrels daily—fairly close to the daily average carried by the Suez Canal before it was closed. The line would run about 1200 miles, tapping the oilfields of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Persian Consortium, then the Iraq fields, and into Turkey, there turning west to the Iskenderon Gulf. It is admitted that the difficulties are enormous, including—for American companies—the spectre of American anti-trust prohibitions against collusive production, use, and price controls. The companies concerned with the idea are American, British, Dutch and French and a review of the details and the difficulties is being made for a meeting of the eight companies concerned about the middle of May. One problem being considered is how to ensure internationalisation of the line by a treaty signed by all oil-producing and oil-transmitting countries, with guarantees of non-interference, and agreement on profits and transit charges. Meanwhile, it is agreed here that the Middle East situation is far from happy. There are almost daily reports in the United States that Israeli and Egyptian hostilities could break out again at any time and many in Washington agree that if Colonel Nasser resumes his raids by those convenient “independent and unknown” Arabs from the Gaza Strip or shoots at Israeli shipping in the Gulf of Aqaba, the fat would really be in the fire.

This would, of course, force the United States into another agonising reappraisal. None wants to see hostilities but there are some >swho think that if' they do start, the United

States would have to take a stronger line than last time, which might not be a bad idea. Value of Water Ever since the pre-war dust bowl days, when drought and winds threatened to move to oblivion half the topsoil of the Middle West, the American has been conscious that water is an invaluable resource. Soil conservation experts have been working overtime for years to preserve agricultural lands but without water their activities have largely been nullified. This winter, disastrous snowstorms and blizzards have killed people and cattle and wrecked communications but none the less cries of pleasure have gone up because of the snow, stored in the watersheds that fertilise the great plains. Now comes a new idea to preserve water —treating lakes and reservoirs with “sunburn lotion.” Experiments are being carried out to coat lakes and reservoirs with a chemical film that throws off sun rays and cuts down evaporation considerably. Cetyl alcohol in pellet form released in water coats the surface with a monomolecular chemical substance.

Many problems connected with the scheme have been satisfactorily solved in the laboratory and experiments on a considerable scale will be made on large areas of water this summer, the first being at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma which supplies Oklahoma City with its water.

In a single year evaporation loses the city much more than 500,000 dollars’ worth of water.