OIL WAR SUGGESTED

Evening Star, Issue 19776, 28 January 1928, Page 6

OIL WAR SUGGESTED

STANDARD COMPANY'S PURCHASES Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. XEW YORK, January 27. (Received January 28, ai I a.ra.) The belief that the United States Government would become involved in a controversy over the purchase of Russian oil products by the Standard Oil Company was expressed in financial and oil circles in New York, when a consignment of 2,400 tons of Russian oil from that company was ordered to be delivered at Near East ports. This is interpreted to mean that the United States is giving tacit approval to the Standard Company’s trade relations with the Soviet. Official circles in Washington explain that it is only a routine matter, and that the Shopping Board did not specify oil from any particular source. [A cablegram from New York on November 22 read as follows;—Despite the protest of the Royal Dutch Shell group, the Standard Oil Company, New York, has entered into a new contract for the purchase of a large -quantity of Russian oil products to supply its markets in the Near East. The contract calls for the delivery of a minimum of 360,000 tons of oil over a period of six years, and is the third agreement which the Standard Company has made since last Decomber. It is understood that the Standard Company’s purchases of Russian oil will amount to 1,400.000 tons yearly during the life of the three contract's. The opinion here is that the new agreement foreshadows a bitter contest for supremacy in foreign oil markets.]