OIL RESOURCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 106, 31 October 1942, Page 8

OIL RESOURCES

.WARTIME DEMANDS

UNITED STATES OUTPUT

. Mr. William F. Humphrey, president of Tide Water Oil Company, U.S.A., gave some interesting details on the petroleum industry in a recent address to stockholders. Points from his address are given in brief. The United States in 1941 produced 62i per cent, of the total world output of petroleum; other American countries 16 per cent. World production in crude oil in 1941 represented an all-time record, 2,250,731,440 barrels, or 6,166,338 barrels a day. Production in the Far East (including Borneo, Burma, and Sumatra) was 3.4 per: cent, of the world's output. Europe, excluding Russia, put out 55,000,000 barrels, Iran, Irak, and Arabia 114,000,000 barrels, Japan 3,000,000 barrels, Russia 242,000,000 barrels. United States domestic requirements of gasoline in 1941 were 660,000,000 barrels, an increase of 12 per cent, over the 1940 demand. Figures of the American Petroleum Institute indicated that the stocks of gasoline on March 31, 1942, exceeded 106,000,000 barrels, which is 7,000,000 barrels higher than a year earlier and 2,000,000 barrels higher than the previous peak in the year 1940. Mr. Humphrey stated that notwithstanding this evidence of abundance, the present regional rationing of gasoline and other products might have to be extended to other areas in the United States. Diversion of tankers from" commercial trade to more important demands of war and restrictions on their movements by submarine action had drastically reduced the volume -of crude oil carried by tankers last year. Mr. Humphrey said the industry fully realised that its products are of vital importance for winning the war. The American petroleum industry responded to the demand to increase the daily production of 100 octane gasoline from 40,000 barrels to 120,000 barrels and then to 150,000 barrels; and a further increase was anticipated. The industry was also girding itself to produce synthetic rubber and tuluol for explosives as well as an unlimited supply of fuel oil for the U.S. Navy. War demands for petroleum were increasing, and with such increase costs were rising.