OIL SUPPLIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 878, 23 January 1930, Page 10

OIL SUPPLIES

NO WORLD SHORTAGE COMPANY HEAD HERE There is no immediate chance of a world shortage of oil supplies. Periodically scientists predict a shortage of oil, but each time such predictions are made new fields are discovered, and the estimates have to be revised. Mr. Janies D. Jacobs, managingdirector of the Atlantic Union Oil Company, Ltd., for Australia and New Zealand, made the above observations during a chat this morning. He has just returned from a world tour embracing Java, Singapore, Europe and America, and is now touring New Zealand.

When the viaduct to Freeman’s Bay is complete and the railway runs across it Auckland will have the ideal area for the storage of big oil supplies, Mr. Jacobs said. It is sufficiently removed from the residential areas to eliminate danger, it is conveniently located for the economic transport of supplies and there is excellent berthing accommodation for vessels. Referring to world supplies of oil, Mr. Jacobs said that Venezuela was now probably the third country in the world as far as production was concerned. It appeared to be a prolific source of supply and had only come into prominence during the past few years. Mr. Jacobs first visited New Zea land in 1927 and he spent six weeks in the Dominion obtaining numbers of permits from the various authorities —-municipal and Government. These permits had to be obtained before his company could operate in tho Dominion. They included permits for the construction of depots and the installation of pipe lines, permits for the berthing of ships and permits for explosives. Mr. Jacobs has not always been associated with the oil business. After being educated at the Naval Academy in Annapolis he served during the war with the navy and in 1919 lie joined the Atlantic Refining Company as a salesman. His ability and keen business sense soon marked him for promotion. in 1925 he was sent to Cuba to investigate the market there and a year later he was sent to Australia and New Zealand as director of staff. Later he was appointed to his present position of. managing director.