MORE PETROL USED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22046, 28 February 1935, Page 17

MORE PETROL USED

FIGURES FOR LAST YEAR The world's consumption of petroleum, and its products and related fuels, for ]934 is estimated at 1.438,000,000 barrels. This is a substantial increase compared with 1933, but it does not equal the peak consumption of 1929. The increased consumption in various countries is estimated as follows:—The United States 4 per cent, France 5J per cent, United Kingdom 10 per cent, Canada 8 per cent 7 and Germany about 15 per cent. In Russia there is a small increase in consumption, a decline in exports, and a new peak production figure. The probable result is an increase in stock often ascribed to the importance that Hussia places on an ample available supply of fuel in case of international difficulties. Japan has made it mandatory on petroleum marketers to keep at "all times a six months' supply in storage. For the year the world's production of petrol equalled, if not surpassed, the peak output of 1929. Consumption of petrol in the United States is more than 1,350,000,000 gallons a month, and in the United Kingdom it approaches i 00,000,000 gallons a month. Australia's consumption is more than 20,000,000 gallons a month. So unsatisfactory has been the oil business in the United States owing to over-production and wild cut-throat competition, that some of the leading oil corporations have called in and redeemed bonds to the value of more than £36,000,000 during the last year. Tho Wall Street Journal states that, taking oil out of the ground and selling it for cash readily transforms capital into cash, unless tho money is reinvested in new oilfields. Because of overproduction during the last few years there has been no great incentive to utilise this money in the development of new fields, therefore producers have taken advantage of their own bond issues as the wisest investment for their funds.