Demand for oil ‘increasing’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34103, 16 March 1976, Page 22

Demand for oil ‘increasing’

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. World demand for oil was increasing again after the dramatic fall in the last three years, the executive vicepresident of the Mobil Oil Corporation’s international division (Mr Curtis Klaemer) said

Mr Klaemer said that after the Arab oil embargo and subsequent big increases in price in 1973, the world demand for oil fell steeply. However, after three years demand was picking up again, and by next year oil companies could look forward to levels of demand comparable with pre-1973 levels, Mr Klaerner said.

He said he did not expect any repetition of the dramatic price increases which marked the emergence of the Organisation of Petroleum-

Exporting Countries as a strong cartel in 1973. A further stablishing factor on | prices, he said, was the discovery of new oil re--1 sources, such as those in I Alaska and in the North Sea. ' Last year, Mobil's inter- ■ national earnings were doun [ between 20 per cent and 40 per cent cn 1974 earnings-, but Mr Klaemer said he ex- • pected this loss to be recovered this year. 1 On Mobil’s New Zealand

activities, he said he had not been happy with the pricing structure, but since the December price increases the company's returns were adequate. Although Mobil Mas searching for oil in New Zealand, this did not mean that Mobil believed there

■was no oil to be found here, he said. Mobil was fully committed in other areas of the world.