OIL COMPANIES’ RESERVES IN N.Z.

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28440, 21 November 1957, Page 18

OIL COMPANIES’ RESERVES IN N.Z.

"The Press** Special Service

WELLINGTON, Nov. 20. If there was a world war today and sea and air communications were severed New Zealand would have sufficient petrol, diesel fuel and other petroleum products in stock to last several months. An oil company executive explained that it was the practice for oil companies to hold in reserve in the main centres enough petrol for three months’ normal supply and in smaller ports with oil installations sufficient for up to six months. The problem of storage and distribution of products had improved considerably in the past few years with the establishment of installations at new ports, he said. Most companies had products stored at depots at the nine New Zealand ports visited by tankers —Auckland, Whangarei, Mount Maunganui, Napier, New Plymouth. Nelson, Lyttelton, Dunedin and Bluff. Companies ensure that there is never less than one month’s supply at any of their installations when a tanker is due. Even in the last world war,

when the oil companies pooled their stocks at the direction of the Government, a constant supply was maintained for industrial and private needs—if only on a rationed scale.

In peace-time there is little or no likelihood of supplies becoming depleted in any area of the country. The systems by which various companies lodge their orders are well-proven. Refineries in various parts of the world are advised well in advance of, likely demands—an assessment based on statistics and predicted future trends.

New Zealand’s principal source of supply in recent years has been Indonesia, which last year provided half the Dominion’s needs. Other leading suppliers were Bahrein (one-quarter), Australia (7 per cent.) and Aden.

The Dominion’s other sources of supply are widely dispersed. They include the United Kingdom. Malaya, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and the Netherlands.

Petrol consumption in New Zealand has risen steadily in postwar years. In 1939 the consumption was 100 m gallons and after a recession because of the rationing of the war years the figures jumped from 180 m gallons in 1952 to 244.6 m gallons last year. Such a trend is largely a reflection of the remarkable increase in the number of motor-vehicles on the roads of the Dominion. The registration figures for 1925 were 122.000, rising to 217,000 in 1935, 307,000 in 1945 and 734,000 at March 31 this year. Oil companies expect consumption to increase in the years ahead, but perhaps not at the same rate as in recent years.

Other petroleum products, too, have met a much keener demand in recent years. Diesel fuel, in particular, is being used far more since the war because of the rapidly growing fleets of diesel buses and trucks and the popularity of diesel tractors with farmers.

This upward trend in the use of petroleum products is thought by oil companies to be a measure of a country’s productivity and a reliable guide to its standard of living.