Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-09-26


heads He summarized the situation .
Tank car shipments Of gasoline from
( Montana Refiners to points IN North
I Dakota win continue An exception
to Directive No 81 must be procured
for each shipment, but these ex-
ceptions are freely granted by the
Director Of Transportation, Walter
DuAdont Of Chicago.
Fuel oil storage in the East Is below
the average possibly 25e5 and
every effort is being made to build up
this supply.
About $4,000 tank cars are nov in
service as against about 1000 one year
ago. However, the big problem now
IS to build up reserve stocks Of fuel
oil as 1t is realized with winter wea-
ther coming soon, shipments will be
delayed Available stocks are only
sufficient to hold temperature Of IS
degrees, which is six to eight degrees
less than what the average tempera-
ture in homes and schools should be.
Conversion from oil to coal is being
made rapidly at the present time, as
people now realize that unless changes
are made. many viii suffer A ban
on fuel shipments North of Cairo, H.,
has been put into effect, but expecta-
tons have now been granted for ship
ments into the Twin Cities and the
Northwest. The cargoes originating at
the Gulf were all being diverted up
the Ohio River for consumption in
the Northeast Atlantic Coast area.
The Great Lakes Pipe Line Co, to
Minneapolis had only small amount
Of gasoline on hand when Directive
No. 81 was put into effect. The pipe
line was switched to fuel oil instead
Of gasoline. and the result was that |
an acute shortage of gasoline for the
Northwest existed.
The rains Of the past ten days de-
layed harvesting and enabled the
building up Of some storage, although |
shipments are slow due to the lack Of /
transportation, especially tank cars
to North Dakota destinations.
There win be no relief for the West
or Middle West in regard TO more
tank cars being available, as it win
take every available car for service TO
the Atlantic seaboard if suffering Is
to be eliminated.
Montana refiners and marketers can
not expect to expand their markets
to any great degree 10 Eastern North
Dakota as no tank cars win be avail
able, and the mileage from the pipe
lines at Minneapolis. the barge lines
on the Mississippi River, and term
Inals at Duluth and Superior. are
closer to most of eastern North Da-
kota destinations than are Montana
refiners
We should not build UP too great
as to future markets and Z
expand our drilling operations be-
yond our market requirements, or the
price of crude oil win decline.
It is well to remember that the Price
is only interested IN
maximum prices as means of hold
ng down prices for the consumer and
IS means Of fighting initiation. He
has no concern as to how low petro-
cum products fan, and If we have an
excess Of these products the law Of
averages win continue to work and
prices win go down
There Is feeling that more drastic j
measures win be put into effect In the
lear future which will affect all bus
nesses, and that nothing in a civilian (
vay win stand IN the way OF an all
nut War Effort, regardless Of whether
t viii cause a lot of hardship to in
iividuals and companies. We will feel
he effects OF this policy in the near
uture and more so after the election
n November.