V.O.C. COSTS AND PROSPECTS
At the annual meeting of the Venezuelan Oil Concessions, Lord Bearsted emphasised the important influence on earnings of the bolivar exchange and of other important items on the expenditure side. Last year, he stated, the purchasing rate for bolivares was decidedly unfavourable and, coupled with the sharp rise in production and general field expenses, had a large bearing on the company's net returns.
These unfavourable influences, it seems, are likely to operate once again in much the same degree in 1938, while, on the other hand, it seems likely that production will increase and that selling prices will be well maintained. Lord. Bearsted disdosed that an arrangement has been made with the Royal Dutch-Shell group under which the V.O.C. undertaking has acquired a one-third interest in certain oil concessions, comprising a total of 600,000 hectares, recently taken up by the Venezuelan Oil Development Company. It is in order to take care of these requirements, in addition to the extensive exploration programme on the Company's own concession, that the Exploration' and General reserve has been increased by £5oo,000. Stressing the benefits which accrued from the Company's connexion with the Royal Dutch-Shell group, Lord Bearsted stated that, while world consumption of petro- leum products had shown little or no increase during the first few months of 1938, the Company's production this year to date, which had been disposed of to the Asiatic Petroleum Company, has shown a substantial rise of roughly 20 per cent.
Previous page
