Gasoline

The oil situation continues to excite the speculator and puzzle the judicious. No sooner had record crude production been announced (TIME, June 15), than realistic indications of diminished crude output appeared. Oil prices continue to climb, and at length oil shares on the Stock Exchange have come in for a genuine advance.

Of course, the driving force behind this firming tone to the oil industry is this spring's unprecedented consumption of gasoline. On May 1, 1925, stocks of gasoline in the U. S. were 1,561,002,024 gallons--a goodly amount still, although 64,867,000 gallons less than on May 1, 1924. Never since 1920 have gasoline stocks been smaller than they were the same date a year earlier.

April consumption of gasoline was unprecedented, at the rate-of 27,030,000 gallons a day, thus surpassing the previous record month of August, 1924, when consumption reached 26,700,000 gallons daily. Some authorities expect to see a daily consumption rate of 29,000,000 gallons set for May, 1925; and, when this summer's season is really reached, a consumption of over a billion gallons a month. If this transpires, stocks in this country would amount to only a little more than a month and a half's supply.

Refiners start to store gasoline in November and continue to pile up stocks : until June 1. Last winter, however, the increase of gasoline stocks was 225,000,000 gallons less than for 1923-24, while consumption is now running 35% higher than at this time last year.