EMPHATIC DENIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26778, 22 May 1948, Page 3

EMPHATIC DENIAL

NO STEEL RECEIVED FROM AUSTRALIA

An emphatic denial that the British Petroleum Company ol' New Zealand was receiving large quantities o£ steel from New Zealand’s import quota from Australia was made by the managing director of the company, Mr R. W. W. Turner, in a statement to the Daily Times yesterday. Mr Turner said that there was an impression in some quarters that his company was beihg assisted by the Government in obtaining part of the import quota,,but that this was not the case. “ Since we started our construction programme early in 1947 on oil installations at the ma.ior ports and also on up-country depots, we have not received one ton of steel from Australia," said Mr Turner. “ The whole of the company's steel imports have been obtained from the stocks of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the majority of the material was fabricated before shipment." The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company holds, a substantial interest in the British Petroleum Company of New Zealand, It has been solely responsible for the development of the immense oil resources of Iran, to which the company has an exclusive concession, and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s main refinery, situated at Abadan, in the Persian Gulf, is now the largest oil refining plant in the world, with an output of over 15,000.000 gallons a day. and a current capacity of 20,000,000 tons per annum. Nine refineries are operated by AngloIranian Oil in various parts of the world The British Tanker Company, which is owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, had a tanker fleet prior to the war of 92 tankers, representing 1,000,000 deadweight tons. During the war 41 of these tankers were lost as the result of enemy action, but these have now been more than replaced and the present tanker fleet of 95 tankers has a dead-weight tonnage of 1,200,000. Orders have been placed with shipbuilders for a further 25 tankers, which will bring the fleet’s capacity up to 1,500,000 dead-weight tons.