Some 10,000,000 Eastern Seaboard car owners last week winced at the gasoline rationing (see p. 11), but the heavy losers were the big oil companies. Dopesters put the cost to the industry at about $300,000,000 for the year, about $200,000,000 less than combined profits of the 20 biggest units in 1941. Although predominantly Eastern outfits like Atlantic Refining, Sun Oil and Socony-Vacuum will be hardest hit, the whole oil industry faces its worst economic crisis since the depression.
Reason for these losses (and for rationing) is the tanker shortage. The big shift from water to land transportation has quadrupled oil...
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