RUSSIAN OIL PRODUCTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20319, 30 January 1928, Page 7

RUSSIAN OIL PRODUCTS

STANDARD COMPANY’S TRADE. BIG PURCHASES ARRANGED FOR. (Prcea Asaooiatlon—By Telegraph—Copyright ) NEW YORK, January 27. The belief ttyat the United States Government would become .involved in a controversy over the purchase of Russian oil products by the Standard Oil Company was expressed in financial and oil circles in New York, when a consignment of 2400 tons of Russian oil from that company was ordered to be delivered at Near East ports. This is interpreted to mean that the United States is giving tacit approval to the Standard Company’s trade relations with the Soviet. Official circles in Washington explain that it is only a routine matter, and that the Shipping Board did not specify oil from any particular source.

A message from New York on November 22 read as follows: —Despite the protest of the Royal Dutch Shell group, the Standard Oil Company, New York, has entered into a new contract for the purchase of a large quantity of Russian oil products to supply its markets in me Near East. The contract calls for the delivery of a minimum of 360,000 tons ot oil over a period of six years, and is the third agreement which the Standard Company has made since last December. It is understood that the Standard Company’s purchases of Russian oil will amount to 1,400,000 tons yearly during the life of the three contracts. / The opinion here is that the new agreement foreshadows a bitter contest for supremacy in foreign oil markets.