PETROL SHORTAGE EXPECTED. SOON TO BE RELIEVED

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 August 1948, Page 8

PETROL SHORTAGE EXPECTED. SOON TO BE RELIEVED

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. Existing wells and proved world reserves of crude petroleum are sufficient to ensure reasonably early relief of oil shortages, provided refinery capacity can be extended to cope with the vastly increased demand, according to the chief accountant for New r Zealand of the Vacuum Oil Co. Pty. Ltd. (Mr G. R. Brierley). He arrived at Auckland by the liner Aorangi after a five months’ business visit to the United States. By the end of 1949, he said, the United States oil industry would have spent more than 6,000,000 doL ars } n extending production facilities. This, it was expected, would enable an easing of the supply position. Mr Brierley said considerable research was being done by both the oil industry and the United States Bureau of Mines in the development of synthetic fuels from natural petroleum gas shale and coal. This was to ascertain the most satisfactory production techniques in handling alternative sources of power. It was intended that fuel produced by those methods would be used not to supplant conventional petroleum fuels but rather as a means of building up reserve stocks against emergency requirements. The consumption of oil and petrol in the United States was enormous, said Mr Brierley. He had been told that Brooklyn used more petrol than Australia and New Zealand together. Central heating in homes accounted for a large portion of the oil consumption in the United States. A sixroomed house would use 2000 or 3000 gallons of oil in the season.