WORLD'S OIL SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 12

WORLD'S OIL SUPPLY

THE FIGHT FOR CONTROL.

Oil now looms in' New York as largely in public discussion and as a source of friction as the Mosul question at Lausanne. According to a "Now York World", editorial recently, the foreign policy of Washington is'- obsessed by oil, and the Secretary of State should be called the "Secretary for Oil." If these allegations are true, Washington can retort that the United States, with the/increasing necessity for oil, is- greatly concerned in- defending, the American campaign for oil,' and has the support of tlie most' powerful interests. The Secretary, for the "Interior has started a movement to prevent foreign oil magnates, principally British, from enjoying equal opportunities in American oilfields while they are themselves . suspected of "working constantly to prevent . American oil companies from obtaining equal privileges in other parts of the world.". Notice has been served on the Royal Dutch-Shell group and subsidiary companies in America to appear before the Interior Department, and the. Secretary of the Interior has asked the Federal Trade Commissioner to sit with him in the hearings to ascertain whether foreign companies are denying reciprocity to Americans. If he securesevidence that American , oil interests abroad are being denied reciprocity—in the Dutch colonies, for instance—America has laws aiid discretionary i\)wer, it is represented, which may restrict the operations of foreign-owned corporations on American territory, and will ask whether,; foreign companies shall be admitted to operate on American public lands and Indian lands. Congress in 1920 enacted laws .forbidding the acquisition of properties by nationals of any foreign country which deajefl reciprocity to Americans, but what should be done on Indian lands is a discretionary matter. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the Shell-Union Oil Company of Delaware controls about 240,950 acres of oil lands, 752 miles of trunk pipe lines, five refineries, and about 3.5 per cant, of the American tutput. It is estimated by some authoifyies that the Royal Dutch-Shell Company holds 93 per cent, of the total area of oil-pro-ducing lands in the earth's surfaca, whereas the oil supply of the United States is comparatively restricted, and experts differ as to how long Mexican production can continue.