GERMAN OIL IN FLAMES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 257, 13 January 1941, Page 6

GERMAN OIL IN FLAMES

Despite the presence of German troops, acts of sabotage in Rumania, particularly in the oilliclds areas, are becoming widespread, repor.ts the New York Times. Cabling to the paper on ber 22 from Sofia, A. H. Sulzberger, after a visit to Rumania, says that the incidents include derailments, collisions, broken oil lines, and destruction of bridges. The standard Company's reservoir exploded on December 9, with the, result that the engineers have now been replaced by Iron Guards. Almost simultaneously a lire broke out in the Concordia. Installations at Ploesti and a pump exploded at Telesgenu, setting fire to 60 tank cars. The Buzau-Ploesti pipeline exploded on December 12, and a railway bridge nearly was blown up, interrupting traffic which has not -yet been resumed. Loss for Italy. The first carloads of 100 tons • of oil, destined for Italy caught lire as they left Creditul Minier. An additional huge fire broke out in timber in the Paliaov Valley and destroyed much property, including quantities of accessories used in transporting petroleum. A landing stage at Giurgiu mysteriously drifted off, delaying the loading. Eighty carloads of refined gasoline blew up at Bra/i. Other details includc the explosion of a storage tank near Teleagenu on December 17 containing 150 carloads of gasoline intended for Germany. This sort cf thing is going on weekly., and is causing embarrassment to the Germans, who arc now feverishly constructing new , pipelines and new fleets of tankers in an endeavour to increase the oil supplies as soon as the Danube thaws.