Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-09-20 | Page 2 | Says There is No Danger of Oil Shortage

SAYS THESE IS j I DANGER OF OIL SH0HTAGE President Bedford of New Jersey Company Talks at War Convention of Chamber Cham-ber of Commerce. ATLANTIC CI1TY, X. J., Sept. 19. There is not the slightest danger of a deficiency in the supply either of cruel e oil or its products, kerosene or gasoline, for use by the I'niied States or its al-' lies, in tho opinion of A. C. Bedford of New Vurk, president of the Standard Oil (Join pa ny of New Jersey. Mr. Bedford expressed this conviction here too ay before be-fore the war convention of tho American Chamber of Commerce. "America," said Mr. Bedford, "is producing pro-ducing and can produce all that wlil. be needed for these purposes, but." ho added, add-ed, "our government should receive the first call upon all petroleum produced, either for Itself or as It may designate for the use of our allies in their conduct of the war." Mr. Bedford declared the vital problem prob-lem confronting the petroleum industry today was to insure the production of crude oil. "The price," he said, "should be .sufficiently .suf-ficiently attractive to induce more and more people to drill wells, thus insuring a steady supply and offering always the opportunity of finding a great pool which will make the whole situation suddenly easy." Much Oil in Storage. While the oil refining- capacity of the country, Mr. Bedford stated, is greater than the present demand, the United States is consuming: crude oil at the rate of more than 330.000,000 barrels a year, wliile the annual production In this country amounts to 312,000,000 barrels. There was In storage in the United States on July 1 lust, ' however, 164,590,942 barrels bar-rels of petroleum. "It will thus appear," said Mr. Bedford, Bed-ford, "that -with the stocks above ground and given the present rate of production end consumption, the supply Is sufficient to insure us having enough oil for at least the next five years, provided the production produc-tion is fairly maintained. So while the occasion is not one for alarm, it is one for taking Intelligent measures toward adequate production of what we need." The petroleum committee appointed by the council of national defense to co-op- ! erate with the government, -Mr. Bedford ; said, "has recognized that the government's govern-ment's requirements' should have absolute abso-lute precedence and no consideration of costs, or selfish, interest should interfere with our giving the government every- ; thing it asked of us." To emphasize his suggestions that the production of crude oil be increased, Mr. Bedford said that this country will require re-quire next year at least 55,000,000 barrets of giisoline. "That amount," he declared, "'simplv cannot be obtained from the quantity of crude petroleum now being prod need. "They tell us the war is to be won in the air. Our country is said to be building build-ing large numbers of airplanes. Our allies al-lies are building flying machines as fast as they know how. Vital to the very existence of these airplanes is the highest high-est grade of grasollne which can be produced. pro-duced. The prospect is that the present year will call for S, 000. 000 barrels of gasoline gaso-line for the use of our allies in Europe." Asserting that it would be a great misfortune mis-fortune to adopt any policy that would hamper Or handicap the automobile industry in-dustry as a manufacturing enterprise or the use of automobiles now in possession of the public, Mr. Bedford declared: "There should be a campaign of education educa-tion of automobile users, showing them how to obtain the utmost usefulness from their cars with a minimum consumption of gasoline."