Energy crisis news in brief

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33426, 7 January 1974, Page 11

Energy crisis news in brief

Dutch protest More than 1800 motorcycles carrying about 2500 protesters from all over the Netherlands drove through The Hague city centre yesterday in a demonstration against the Government’s oil rationing proposals: it has been decided to allocate about 2 gallons of petrol a week to motor-cyclists when rationing begins on January 12, compared with 3.3 gallons for car-drivers.—The Hague. January 6. Suez blaze The huge fire which broke out last Tuesday in three offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Suez is now reported to be under control, although flames are still shooting high into the air. An Israeli Government spokesman said yesterday that there was no danger of the fire spreading to other wells or installations, and that pumping has been resumed at some of the rigs. The oilfields were captured from Egypt in the 1967 sixday war. and are run by a Government • owned company. They are not far from where Israeli and Egyptian troops face each other along the Suez cease-fire lines. Experts say that the only way of dousing the flames would be to seal the wells with explosives. New wells would then have to be sunk nearby.—Tel Aviv. January 6. Indonesian expectation Indonesia expects to earn more than SUS2OOOm in oil revenue a year because of her price increases, according to a spokesman for the State-owned Pertamina Oil Company. The country’s revenue from oil amounted to about SUSISOOm last year, and last Tuesday the Govemment raised the price o e crude oil from SUS 6 to SUSIOBO a barrel. Indonesia’s present daily output is 1.4 million barrels. — Djakarta, January 6.

Danger ignored The number of people J treated ir. Baltimore for ' swallowing petrol while siphoning it from car tanks i creased ninefold in the first I week-end that most of the j city’s service stations were i closed because of the fuel r shortage.—Baltimore, Janu- ' ary 6. Race in jeopardy The Brazilian Grand Prix, the second race of the 1974 : world drivers’ championship. ? due to take place on Januj.ary 27. is threatened with -cancellation because the , Government refuses to sup--1 ply high-octane petrol for .■the race. The Minister of ti Mines (Mr Antonio Dias Leri ite) said yesterday that he fl saw little possibility of the •’National Petroleum Council’s I changing its decision.—Bras- • I ilia, January 6. 1 •Malaysia's bil t A total of 121 applications II have been received from (.overseas oil companies wishring to explore for oil and ’lgas in .Malaysia, the Minster 4of Primary Industries (Datuk I Taib Mahmud) has an- . nounced. He told a press [.conference that Malaysia’s Jpresent production rate of 100.000 barrels of petroleum a day would be increased substantially next year. At present, nine overseas oil t firms are engaged in oil explot ation and exploitation in Malaysia.—Kuala Lumpur, ’ January 6. f ? Waiter nounded Early closing in Italy, to , save power, has claimed its first victim — a Neapolitan ’i waiter, aged 32. who was r, shot in the thigh and back , by three angry customers . because he refused to serve - them a pizza after the midnight deadline —Naples, January 6.