841.6363/12–646
Record of Informal Anglo-United States Oil Talks, November 194612
A series of informal discussions on oil questions of mutual interest to the British and American Governments took place in London from 19th to the 30th November, 1946, between representatives of the U.S. State Department and officials of the interested U.K. Government Departments. A separate note on the discussions of the position of the Anglo-American Oil Agreement is attached.13 The other subjects considered are summarised below:-
[Page 1383]1. Trends in World Oil Supply and Demand.
- (a)
- Views were exchanged on the prospective levels of world supply and demand for petroleum products during the next 4 years, and on alterations in the pattern of world oil movements which appeared likely to result from the anticipated changes in production and consumption levels in the various areas.
- (b)
- The possibility of the United States ceasing to be a major source of oil supplies for international trade in the not too distant future was noted, in which event the present international oil price structure based on Gulf export prices might be affected. It was understood that the oil companies were already considering this problem.
[Here follow thirty numbered paragraphs, two dealing with general matters and the remaining with petroleum questions affecting specifically-designated countries in South America, the Near and Middle East, Europe, and the Far East. The item dealing with the Near and Middle East is printed in volume VII, page 44. There was no section dealing with the subject of a generalization of the Oil Agreement or a multilateral undertaking in the field of petroleum.]
- This document together with the one immediately following is an agreed record of the talks forwarded to the Department by the Embassy in London in January 1947 after formal approval from “higher authority” in the British Government of “the terms of the section dealing with the position of the Anglo-American Oil Agreement.” (841.6363/12–646)↩
- Infra.↩