NEW OIL COMPANY

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 December 1946, Page 6

NEW OIL COMPANY

COST TO STATE OVER £1,250,000 tOMPETniONJN MARKET (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 20. The New Zealand Government will subscribe 51 per cent, of the £2,500,000 capital of the new oil company, which has now been registered under the name of “British Petroleum Company of New Zealand, ■ Limited.” The Anglo-Iranian• Oil Company, of London, will subscribe the remaining 49 per cent. _ The official statement making this announcement continues: — “Three directors are being appointed by the Government and the following will represent the Anglo-Iranian. Oil Company on the board: —-Messrs G. G. G. Watson, barrister, of Wellington; H. G. Cooper, of Dalgety and Co.; N. B .Fuller, and G. H. James, of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Mr James will be the managingdirector. “The company is negotiating for the purchase or lease of land for its main ocean installations at Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch; and Dunedin.

“It is not considered that the new company will be ready to operate for at least another 18 months, but when it does so, it will, through its commercial management, compete in the market for the distribution and sale of petroluem products, on a purely commercial basis. “The company, while ready to cooperate with other oil companies in such matters as allow co-operation, will be fully competitive, but it is not seeking to interfere with the independence of other existing, oil companies in New Zealand nor is it negotiating for the purchase of any other oil company in this country.

“When the company commences operations it is hoped to absorb , a considerable number of returned ex-servicemen into the organisation, which, will offer interesting employment in many spheres of commercial life, including engineering, accountancy, administrative, technical and sales.

“The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company wish to distribute a proportion of their vastly increased production in the country because ' they believe in the future of New Zealand, and it is with this end in view that the British Petroleum Company of New Zealand, Ltd., is sponsored by them. They are convinced that, as a purely English company, they can offer tMir products to the New Zealand public and enjoy a full share of the big increase in petroleum consumption which will come about as the natural result of the future development of this Dominion.”

The three directors appointed by the Government are Messrs B. C. Ashwin, Secretary to the Treasury, P. B. Marshall, Commissioner of Supply, and G. Laurence, of the Department of Industries and Commerce. . <