OIL FOR CHINA

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 15

OIL FOR CHINA

Approaches To France

(N.Z.P.A.-

LONDON, January 14.

China is pressing France to agree to sell her at least 4.000,000 tons of Sahara oil a year, the “Financial Times,” quoting Comecon sources in East Europe, reported today.

The Soviet affairs correspondent of the newspaper wrote: "The sources maintain that Franco-Chinese talks on the subject have been going on in Geneva and are still in progress.

“China’s need for oil is pressing. Her own production is given officially as 7,000,000 tons, but Comecon estimates put it at not more than 5,500,000 tons, while Chinese needs are for a total of 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 tons a year.

"Soviet deliveries were stopped during the ChineseIndian fighting in 1962—many officials in Eastern Europe believe this is why the Chinese advance into India was halted. "Comecon sources maintain that there is no doubt that France is favourably disposed to the sale of oil to China (and that) still more favourable to the idea is Algeria, the country of origin of the French oil.” The correspondent said that—after some difficulties over payment—Chinese officials had proposed that France “should give credits to the African states of the French community and that these credits should then be used to buy Chinese goods, the money finally returning to France as China’s payment for the oil.

"It is thought in Eastern Europe that France will agree to this, so long as the Chinese give an assurance that the oil will not be used for a new attack on India,” he said. “This assurance would also, of course, be very welcome to the Soviet bloc.”