Bisbee daily review., 1920-02-29
.O|L SHORTAGE IS CAUSE IF EXPORT .STOP BY FIR M [


 Instructions have been issuel to all agents of the Standard Oil company (Caltfornia) to take no contracts for the sale Of fuel oil without referring to the home office in San Francisco. At the same time it has been decided that expectations of refined products, already materially curtailed, shall be kept at minimum and be only such as to meet the company's contractual obligations.
 The condition of the petroleum in dustry which has necessitated these actions is one which so closely and importantly touches the interests of the public, industrially and otherwise, that a description of it will be use full in giving thorough understand ing of the situation which exists. In it's simplest terms; 1t is that the crude oil production of California is not suf- ficient to meet the demands.
 California was called upon in 1919 to supply approximately 3475,55V,G00 gallons of naptha products. This quantity could not be obtained from the production of crude oil in Cali fornia and the shortage of over 2O,- 100000 gallons was imported from the east. With the demand for gaso- line and heavier fuels in direct pro- portion to the number of internal combustion engines, embracing auto mobiles, trucks, tractors, marine mo- tors and pumping plants and the pro- duction of this class of equipment constantly increasing, the 1920 de- mand for naptha products, it is esti- mated, will exceed the 1919 demand by at least p per cent, indicating a total requirement. of 600, 100000 gail Ions. From the present supply of crude oil the total possible ,produc- tion of naptha products is but 450,000- 900 gallons, indicating a shortage in the products named of 150,000,0 ,000 gal Ions.
 While heretofore gasoline. has been purchased in the Mid Continent field such purchases must necessarily be made on a competitive basis with eastern buyers. The wholesale prices of gasoline in the Mid-Continent field today, at points of manufacture, are Is to 19 cents per gallon. Add to this cents per gallon. the cost Of bringing the product to the coast in tank cars, and this gasoline would sell at San Francisco at between 20 and 30 cents per gallon, as against the present price of PIE cents.
 There are two simple factors, pro- Guction and consumption. Today the crude oil production of California is 25,000 barrels daily less than the re quirements, and the deficiency for 1920 at the present rate Of produc- tion will exceed I0,000,000 barrels. which means that the public con sumed that quantity over the amount produced. Stocks of crude oil on hand today of 30,0O0 000 barrels are lower than at any time since 1910 and of this quantitys it is estimated, only 14.000,000 barrels are available for the market. At least 10,00O,00O barrels the required as a working capital, or. 'o speak, ''as merchandise on the shelf and the remaining 60OO,0O0 L. .els are in pipe lines and tam. bottoms and entirely unavailable
 This company has been successful in increasing it's production of crude oil. In 1918 the increase was four and one-half million barrels over 1918. but even these considerable increases on the part of one company do not save the whole situation, In view of the shortage existing, the company has increased the prices it offers tor refinable crude oil. Other purchasers of refinable crude oil have been pay ing large premiums over the prices offered by the Standard Oil company.
 The remedies are increased produc- tion and importations, and to a les ser extent but quite as important. con servation and the elimination of the waste by careful and scientific hand ling of petroleum and it's products by the oil industry on the one hand and its scientific and careful use by the public on the other hand