OIL: Tankers Away

While battle flags flew off Java last week (see p. 15), the blue peter fluttered from yardarms at sunny San Diego and Houston, at blustery Halifax, at hot Aruba and Bahrein. The tanker fleets of the United Nations were busy. Even if the Dutch East Indies were lost, the Allies would still control 93% of the world's crude-oil production, 88% of refining facilities, almost 90% of tanker tonnage.

But, as with dry-cargo tonnage (see p. 10 ), the lonely sea miles of distance offset this huge preponderance of tonnage. Standard Oil Co. (N.J.) alone operates qr controls some 2,200,000 tons, nearly...

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