The Washington herald., 1922-11-06
PLAN COHESION
Big Oil Interests Agree to
Cooperate in
Europe.
Especial oerrsspendsnee to n. Hsrsid.)

kbpocfAi Oorrosponoeucr 20 Ihe Aefald.D
AMSTERDAM. Nov. 5.-The lead
ing oil companies OF the word are
once more displaying great interest
In the acquisition Of new fields. 1t
ID worthy Of note. however. that they
are now showing a tendency to CO.
operate instead of to compete. This
Is due to the evident purpose of the
governments controlling these new
fields to take advantage of this COM
petition and to play OF one group
against another. This applies espe-
cially in the case OF the Soviet and
Rumanian governments.
Cooperate Against soviets.
/ At the conference which was re-
Gently held In Paris by representa-
tiyes of the Royal Dutch Shell, the
Standard OIL groups. and fnanciers
interested in the Russian oil indus
try. presided over by Sir Henry De-
terding, a resolution was passed in
which the following principles were
enunciated: No concession will be
solicited on a field that belongs to
other owners; equal treatment viii
be asked for Russians and foreign
ers: the oil reserves on fields belong
ing to the Russian state will not be
solicited separately. but will eventu-
ally be exp oited In accordance with
program 10 be drawn up by mu-
tual agreement. In this way IL was
planned to prevent the Soviet gov
ernment from taking undue advan-
tage of the competition among the
various oil interests
This policy. however. has not pre-
vented other American interests
from acquiring valuable oil proper
ties in the Baku district. The In
ternational Barnsdal1 Corporation.
according to report. viii act as the
agent OF the Soviet government.
The acquisitions OF such concerns
are only in fields belonging to the
state which have never before been
developed. but there seems to be
some ground to fear that these inde-
pendent companies may do some
harm to the cooperating interests
of the Royal Dutch and Standard
groups.
The Rumanian Syndicate.
For the acquisition of state oil
fields in Rumania a syndicate has
been formed by the Standard Oil.
Anglo Persian. Royal Dutch. the
Banque de Paris ct des Pays Bae.
and the Petrofina companies. The
latter Is a Rumanion oil concern.
II seems that the requests for new
concessions in these oil fields. in
which the large interests are ap-
parently also cooperating. have been
accompanied by an offer OF a large
loan to the Rumanian government
on conditions which are regarded
as favorable to the latter. Although
the Moniteur de Petrole reports that
this offer has been refused by Ru-
mania. this report is believed here
to be incorrect
The conditions which have been
proposed by the oil interests are re-
ported to be as follows: First. COM
plete liberty to produce and to refine
into such products as can be sold
both at home and abroad: second.
| a guarantee to the minister of trade
and industry that the oil products
| necessary for domestic consumption
shall be placed at the governments
disposal: third. a minimum of so per
cent of total production will be
made available for domestic uses:
fourth. maximum domestic prices to
be determined every six months by
! a joint committee: and fifth. the re-
movsl Of all other restrictions on
exports.
Production Improved.
Reports on the condition of the
Rumanian OIL industry continue to
be encouraging. Electric power
| output has improved. and the coun-
tr"'s oil production has now reached
400 cars a day. The Astra Roman
'Royal Dutch Group) has raised its
output to 120 cars a day. and the
production ~ the Steaua Romano
during the first half Of September
averaged 154 tons daily, AS against
$50 tons in August and 622 tons in
July.