GERMANY'S OIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25082, 21 December 1944, Page 6

GERMANY'S OIL

DIMINISHING SUPPLIES VALUE OF HUNGARY WARNING TO ALLIES VICTORY NOT YET WON By Telegraph.—Press Association— Copyright (Special Correspondent) (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 20 After over-running the oilfields of Galicia and Rumania, the Russian armies now stand before the town of Nagy-Kanizsa, on the outskirts of Hungary's principal oilfields, says the Economist. Germany has already lost 67 per cent of its crude oil resources and the loss of Hungary would bring the figure to 74 per cent. Over two-thirds of its remaining reserves aro at Zistersdorf, only 31 miles from Vienna. Meanwhile, Allied bombing in the west has for months past made Germany's synthetic oil plants its chief target. "Will tho result be that at long last, after so many false hopes and false predictions on tho Allied side, the Germans will really run out of oil? Inconvenienced, But Not Defeated Estimates must, of course, be tentative, but the answer is almost certainly that now, as. in earlier years, the Germans may have been gravely inconvenienced, but are not defeated, by the 'Allied offensive on oil. With Austria and Germany intact the Germans will still be producing about 2,300,000 tons of crude oil. compared with 609.000 tons in 1938. The increase has been due to the vast development in centralised exploring and drilling of new resources. If the figures for synthetic oil are added the German total for 1944 perhaps reaches 6,000,000 tons, although bombing may in fact have reduced the output below this figure. Some stocks have been destroyed by bombing, but it would be wrong to conclude that the Germans are carrying no stocks. Vehicles on Generator Gas Meanwhile, in 1943 and 1944, more and more vehicles have been transferred to generator gas and more horse-drawn transport has been introduced for military purposes. The series of great retreats has also relieved some ol the strain. „ , . It would therefore be unsafe to assume that, the minimum amount of fuel and lubricating oil necessary to keep tanks moving, planes flying and submarines diving will not be forthcoming for another six months. Germany's tremendous losses of natural oil have undoubtedly brought the country nearer to the edge of collapse. However, past experience snows that the Allies always underestimate how much room there is still left for balancing on that edge.