PETROL AT 10d A GALLON

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 February 1931, Page 9

PETROL AT 10d A GALLON

1 rpilE price of petrol in. [Britain may be reduced to tenpence a gallon within the next few months, states the “Sunday Express.” The present jiricc varies from Is I'd to Is 44d. If the price falls it will l?e because the Russian Government is determined to expand its British trade at all costs. [During 1931 the production of Russian petrol is expected to show an increase of 600 million gallons, and, it is stated, that Moscow's orders are that as much as possible of this is to be sold in Great Britain. Approximately 1,000,000,000 gallons of petrol will be consumed in this country this year, and of this total 63,000,000 gallons is coming from Russia.

Russian Dumping Plan

It. is said, that under the new scheme payment at the rate of £2 per ton (300 gallons) will be acceptable to the Russians, who pay their workers in paper money which has no circulation outside Russia.

By next May or June the Russian Government hopes to be floodiiig garages and filling stations in Britain with No. 3 petrol at 34d a gallon, which plus tax and profit vl ill be retailed at 10d a gallon.

This policy of the Russian Government will put the R.O.P. Company in a difficult position, for they are the signatories to an agreement, signed by the other great oil companies, for fixing prices. The agreement does not expire until the end of 1931.