SUPPLY OF PETROL

Otago Witness, Issue 4038, 4 August 1931, Page 11

SUPPLY OF PETROL

BULK PURCHASE SCHEME AN AUSTRALIAN ENTERPRISE. Holding the view that too much capital was going out of Australia to a foreign country, a company of Australian consumers—the Petroleum Company of Australia, Ltd.—recently investigated the question of a supply of bulk spirit, and decided that it would import and distribute spirit to its consumers. Mr W. C. Allen, managing director of the company, who has been abroad finalising arrangements, was a passenger to Sydney by the Makura, which arrived at Wellington from San Francisco on Monday. The first bulk shipment of spirit is to be made shortly, arrangements having been made regarding the chartering of a tanker. Interviewed by an Evening Post reporter, Mr Allen said that the organisation he represented refused to pay the excessive rates for petrol charged by foreign companies, and a company of consumers was organised to operate in eastern Australia. They were about to spend £300,000 in the equipment of bulk terminals .in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. The organisation represented consumers on a large scale, men who represented some large transport service and who ran a fleet of omnibuses, but it was not co-operative; they controlled big transport lines. The organisation was out to do something for Ausrtalia’s benefit at this time of depression, and had considered that the disparity of the price of 3d a gallon in the United States and 2s a gallon in Sydney, including 8d tax, was too great.

“ I have been abroad to arrange for bulk supplies till we can produce a high-grade petrol in Australia,” he said. “ For many months we have been investigating the possibilities of shale and alcohol. We will eventually get something. Our price for petrol under the present scheme will be considerably less than that charged by the American companies. Half the profits are to be returned to the shareholders, and the other half will be devoted towards the expense of producing oil in Australia. We have already found it. “We only started this z move because of our country’s position. It was essential that we should reduce costs, and the supply of petrol is one of the means by which a reduction in costs can be accomplished. We have been importing spirit in drums since last October, and that move has been very successful.”

By reason of the fact that there would be no selling costs, and no overhead, the company would not need so much capital as might be expected, Mr Allen added. If any organisations in New Zealand would like particulars of the scheme, they would be welcome to them. “We are not out to make money,” he said, “ but to reduce costs.”