Arizona republican., 1920-02-22
O|L SHORTAGE CAUSES STANDARD TO CUT |TS EXPORTSTOLOWMARK.

Instructions have been issued to all agents of the Standard Oil company (California), 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 exportations of refined products, already materially curtailed. shall be kept at a minimum and only such as to meet the company's contractual ob- ligations.
 The condition of. the petroleum in dustry which has necessitated these actions is one which so closely and inn portantly touches the interests of the public, industrially and otherwise, that description of it will be useful to giving a thorough understanding of the situation which exists. In it's simplest terms, it 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 475,000, 900 gall Ions of naptha products. This quantity could not be obtained from the pro- duction of crude oil in California and the shortage of over 20, ,o00,000 gallons was imported from the east. With the demand for gasoline and heavier fuels in direct proportion to the num- Der of internal combustion engines, embracing automobiles, trucks, trac- tors, marine motors and pumping plants and the production of this class of equipment constantly increas- ing, the 1920 demand for naptha prod ucts it is estimated. will exceed the 1919 demand by at least 9 per cent, indica ting a total requirement. of 600- |'000.000 gallons. From the present supply of crude oil the total possible production of naptha products is but 450. 900, ,000 gallons, indicating a short age in the products named of 150,000,- 900 gallons.
 While heretofore gasoline has been purchased in the Mid Continent field, such purchases must necessarily be made competitive basis with east ern buyers. The wholesale prices of gasoline in the Mid Continent field today at points of manufacture, are IS cents to 19 cents per gallon. Add to this price ' cents per gallon, the cost of bringing the product to the coast in tank cars, and this gasoline would sell at San Francisco at be- tween p cents and 90 cents per gall lon, as against the present price of 21I5 cents.
 There are two simple factors, pro- duction 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 production will exceed 10.000.000 barrels Since 1916 stocks have decreased 14.000. 900 bar rels which means that the public consumed that quantity over the amount produced Stocks of crude oil on hand today Of 30.000 900 bar rels are lower than at any time since 1910 and of this quantity, it is esti- mated. only 14OO0.0 900 barrels are available for the market. At least 0,0O0.0 barrels are required as a working capital, or, to to speak, .as merchandise on the shelf" and the rema ming 6.0O0,0O0 barrels are in pipe lines and tank bottoms and entirely unavailable.
 This company has been successful in increasing it's production of crude oil. In 1918 the increase was 4,500, 900 barrels over 1917. and in 1919 5000. GOO barrels over 1918, but even these con-