VAST OIL PIPELINES TO BE BUILT

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5288, 28 December 1946, Page 5

VAST OIL PIPELINES TO BE BUILT

(Press Assn.-

TO COST £40,000,000 PERSIAN GULP TO MEDITERRANEAN

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Dec. 27. Commentiftg on thfe ttew oii hiTtangemehts in the Midylle East, the financial editor of Reuter's says they should mean a cheaper and more abundant supply for Britain and people on the Continertt. At least one new pipe=line aiid possibly two fi'oln the Fersian Gulf to the eastern Medrterranean is contemplated. In one series of negotiations the Anglo-Iranian Company in which the British Government has large holdings, has agreed in principle to

sell substantial quantities of crude oil to two American companies, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and the Vacuiuan Oil Company, over a period of 10 to 20 years. First, the British and American companies are to survey the 000 miles of country between the Gulf and the Mediterranean to see if the great pipe-line can be built. It will be jointly owned. American companies are also negotiatirg with the American company which has large holdings in eastern Arabia. Here, too, agreement is dependent on the laying of a line from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. The ncvv pipe-lines, costing anything up to T '0,000,000 each, would save the long liaul by tanlcer through the Red Sea and the S'Uiez Canal. There is already a pipe-line system across the Middle East from the Iraq fields hranching to ru:i through Syria and Palestine.