FUEL OIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1942, Page 4

FUEL OIL

NO SHORTAGE IN GERMANY ACCORDING TO FRONTIER CORRESPONDENT. , INCREASE IN SYNTHETIC PRODUCTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, February 22. Reports that Germany is short of oil are ridiculed by the British United' Press correspondent on the German frontier. He says Germany is building further synthetic plants. The latest is situated in upper Silesia and is capable of producing a million tons a year. Since the outbreak of the Russian war, German synthetic production has' increased by 100,000 tons a month. Synthetic

plants are at present consuming onethird of Germany’s coal output. Huge oil dumps are being built in areas untouched by R.A.F. bombing. Germany at the outbreak of war possessed from 12000,000 to 16,000,000 tons of oil instead of the 6.000,000 tons previously estimated. German stocks have never been allowed to fall below one year’s peace time requirements. Until recently petrol for non-military consumption has been astonishingly plentiful. The only major difficulty seems to be lubricating oil, but the position in this regard is hard to ascertain.