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Backstage the Europeans were pressing for a pledge that all the industrial countries freeze oil imports through 1985 at last year's level. Unfair, protested Carter's aides. By drawing on increasing output from North Sea wells (expected to nearly double from last year to 1985), the Europeans could freeze imports from outside the Community and still burn more petroleum than ever. In the U.S., where domestic oil output has been declining (down about 700,000 bbl. a day since 1972), a freeze on imports would cause more hardship. Japan, which is totally dependent on imported oil, took the same...
...leaders agreed because they knew that in the face of the OPEC threat they could not afford to leave Tokyo without some sort of accord. But the import limits are the kind of solution that is only to be described as better than nothing. They will be difficult to enforce, and OPEC can, if it chooses, foil them by cutting production again. At best, the limitations will hold a bad situation steady while the world goes through a painful period of inflation, slowdown or recession, conservation and conversion to alternate fuels...
...fundamental difficulty is that the U.S. cannot import enough oil right now to fill its needs. Imports are running about 8 million bbl. a day?roughly half of U.S. consumption, up 3% just since late April ?but oilmen estimate that they need an other 500,000 to 1 million to assure an even flow of all products through their refineries. The prime reason for the shortage is that the other members of OPEC have never increased production enough to make up for the curtailment of supplies from Iran. The situation raises two questions: 1) Which products should be rushed...
...conceded that the dispute over the proper balance between crude stocks and refinery runs is a legitimate difference of opinion, and he softened the threat to take crude away from refiners who do not use it rapidly enough. His reason: if he did that, the refiners might retaliate by importing less oil. Startled reporters asked if the Government was yielding to oil-company blackmail. No, no, said Schlesinger, no company had made any such threat; he was merely worried that he has no authority to force oilmen to import as much crude as they can find...
...suffered through a lingering period of sluggish production and relatively high unemployment. By contrast, the U.S. economy rebounded fairly smartly: production picked up, and joblessness fell from its 1975 peak of 8.9% to the current 5.8%. But the U.S.'s solo recovery brought problems. Prosperity sucked in imports, but American exporters found little demand for their goods abroad. Then, too, the nation's dependence on ever more costly foreign fuel increased, lifting the U.S. oil import bill to boggling heights-$40 billion last year, perhaps $50 billion this year. The result was a three-year string of stinging...