PETROLEUM NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 221, 12 January 1911, Page 4

PETROLEUM NEWS.

OrL PRODUCTION IN JAPAN. According to news received by telegraph in London from a trustworthy source, the native oil producers in Japan have been obliged to close down in consequence of the fact that the Standard Oil Company have reduced their prices for oil to a very low level. The message adds that the Japanese Government have dcciued to increase the tariff on oil in order to protect the native producers, though no official confirmation of this statement has yet been received.

It appears to be the aim of the Standard Oil Company to secure control of the native industry, in which many millions sterling of Japanese capital are invested. The Government has reason for anxiety in view of the increasing adoption of oil as fuel in the navy. There is already a heavy duty on the importation of kerosene, which falls under the statutory or general tariff—a fact which leaves the Government free to raise or reduce the duties as it pleases. Nevertheless, the official statistics show that in 1908 the oil imported was twice as much as that produced in Japan, the figures in values being respectively £1,510,3150 and £658,508.

The Standard Oil Co.'s chief rival in the export of oil to Japan is the Asiatic Petroleum Company, which in the present struggle has shown the direction of its sympathies by contracting with the Hodou Company to give its applies of Sumatra crude oil, on which there is a very low duty, so that it may at all events keep its refinery going even though it is compelled to close down its wells.