Derationing: £1,000,000 Saved
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A LTHOUGH the derationing.of fuel r-khas little effect on the volume of supplies to road transport operators, except, perhaps, coach proprietors, it was welcomed throughout the industry as being the end of another .restriction entailing clerical work and frustration.
Derationing of. fuel was made possible by an agreement between the StandArd• Oil Co., of New Jersey, and the Caltex Oil Co., with • the British Government. . The problem was not of supply, but of dollars. Britain had insufficient hard currency to pay for extra fuel, so the American companies. agreed to .accept payment in sterling, which would be spent by them in buying more of their equipment than formerly in the sterling area.
Increased consumption of fuel is estimated at 1,000,000 tons a year, a rise of 20 per cent. About 280,000 tons of this will be supplied from Caribbean sources by the Anglo-American Oil Co. This will represent to the concern an extra earning in sterling equivalent to 6,000,000 dollais.
A total of £1,000,000 a year in administration costs will be saved by fuel derationing. Two thousand Civil Servants will be transferred to other work.
No increase in the price of fuel is expected. When "the Esso refinery at Fawley, Southampton, is completeil December, 1951, 'petrol will "be of a far higher quality. At present, a return to branded .petrols is unlikely.