Word: oilmen
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Within minutes after the news from Iraq hit the wires last week, oilmen began to face up to the problem of what to do if oil supplies from the Middle East are cut off. Though Baghdad Radio announced that the new regime will honor existing agreements with Western oil companies, and oil continued to flow (see FOREIGN NEWS), few oilmen were willing to relax. From beneath the burning deserts of the Middle East flow more than 4,000,000 bbl. of oil a day, a quarter of the free world's production. About 90% of the oil is exported...
...which gets only 200,000 bbl. daily from the Middle East, few oilmen would propose a dramatic increase in domestic production to offset loss of the Iraq supply. They are wary of repeating their mistake during the Suez crisis, when they amassed stores of oil so large that production had to be chopped back hard this year. Last week the Texas Railroad Commission boosted the number of producing days in August from nine to eleven, but made it clear that the hike was due to a slight rise in petroleum demand and a reduction of oil inventories rather than...
...supplies were tighter and demand stronger than at any time since the post-Suez glut. By cutting production, imports and refinery runs in the first half of 1958, oilmen had whittled gasoline and crude-oil inventories to what they consider ideal levels. Last week stocks of gasoline slid to 183 million bbl.-a six-week supply-and crude dropped to 252 million bbl.-a five-week supply. More important, the boom in vacation driving boosted gasoline demand in June 4% above April and May, one of the best gains in twelve months...
While producers in some other industries were shaving prices (see below), oilmen last week felt confident enough to raise bulk gasoline prices on the Gulf Coast by ½? per gal. More increases are coming. Said a Sinclair Oil spokesman: "As the year goes on, higher refined prices will be inevitable because prices now are totally unrealistic in relation to costs...
...other companies piped huge amounts to the Pacific Northwest, Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Los Alamos. Oil company pipelines sent 120,000 bbls. of oil daily to the West Coast and Texas Gulf refineries from some 750 wells in the area. With great finds in San Juan and Paradox Basin, oilmen counted 300 new gas wells put down in the first half of 1958. They expect another 300 before the year...