Oil to last at least a month

Press, 30 December 1978, Page 1

Oil to last at least a month

NZPA Wellington New Zealand will not feel the adverse effects of Iran’s oil export closedown for at least a month, according to the managing director of BP (New Zealand) Ltd, Mr D. Kendall. If the shut-down continued during the next few weeks, some of the oil tankers destined for New Zealand might be shortloaded and an occasional shipment cancelled. However, oil stocks here were high enough to buffer the impact, Mr Kendall said. If oil supplies from Iran remained cut for longer than a month, it would then become “a new ball game.” “The whole world would b e affected. The situation would begin to change, with countries moving into a period of belt-tighten-ing,” said Mr Kendall. “Iran’s oil production, as a percentage of the nonCommunist world, was about 12 per cent last year. “If that amount goes out of the world supply for a significant period of time, countries affected by it and also those in the International Energy Agency will be dictated to.” Mr Kendall said that if world oil supplies were cut by 7 per cent or more, the governments of countries that were members of the I.E.A. were obliged to take steps to cut demand by a similar amount. Oil production in Iran has almost stopped after two months of rioting, demonstrations, and strikes. Iranian oil makes up about 50 per cent of New Zealand’s oil imports. Of the big oil companies trading in New Zealand, BP and Mobil rely the most on Iran. Shell buys all its supplies from Saudi Arabia.