SOVIET OIL.

Grey River Argus, 10 January 1928, Page 3

SOVIET OIL.

BECOMING DOMINANT, k In the World Market. The general representative in Berlin of the Finance Commissariat of the U.S.S.R. gives an interesting report of the development of the Russian oil industry. So rapid has been its recent progress that in both production and export the pre-war level has been exceeded by the majority of the trusts The technical equipment is at present far better ami more up-to-date than before the Revolution, and within a few years hardly any of the old equipment, which was taken over from the late owners in an obsolete condition, will remain. WORKERS’ STATE CONTROL. The production and refining of oil is managed by four trusts, covering th ■ main districts, and correlated with industrial State institutions, and subordinat 'd to the Supreme Economic. Council—i.e., to its Board of Mines and Fuel. The organisation of the sale of oil and oil products is also under the supervision of the Supreme Economic Council, which has its representative in the oli syndicate. This syndicate directs the operation of the sale of oil products at home and abroad, and connected with it are the various foreign companies, such as the R.0.P., in London, to which it sells its products. Througn these agencies agreements are concluded with foreign Governments ami capitalist firms. The home market is supplied through a network of distributive branches of the syndicate and medium of co-operative societies. REASON FOR ANGER. The effect of the appearance of the Oil Syndicate in the world market has been a decline in prices, in spite of the fight o'* the capitalist trusts of England. HoLand, and U.S.A, against Soviet oil. So long as these trusts were themselves buying from the Oil Syndicate no objections were raised, and ’ they even boasted of the good business they were doing. But as soon as the Syndicate began to act independently in the market, through its allied companies, and their monopoly was threatened, a storm of protest arose. In spite of this opposition, however, production and sale of oil have increased in the last half-year, as the following figures show: — The total production of oil for the first half-year 1926-27 is 506 million tons, that is at the rate of 1,012 as compared with 835 in 1925-1926, 426 iu 1922, and 922 in 1913. Oil refining has also exceeded pr«

war figures, and improvements and enlargements in this branch of the industry will lead to still better re- A suits in a short time, since th- rational alisation of the industry under tralised management is making ra-IdA progress. The sale of oil products in horde/ and foreign markets is also growing!! apace:— Home Sale. ExporMß d ear. Pons. Tons. 1913 . . 6,060.500 .. 914032 1922-23 .. 3.597,500 309.7 irf 1925- .. 5,402,222 . . 1.473, 1926- . . 2,778,000 .. SS7,S(jEj£ (first half-year). In the third quarter of ( 1926 <-xgK port figures reached 525,000 tons. SB There is a notable increase in tha® export to Great Britain and her col- I onies from 180.024 tons in 1925-26 to » 272.245 tons in 1926-27. Thus Russia is rapidly becoming a significant, and even a dominating factor in the oil markets of the world.