3 APRIL 1971, Page 28

SKINFLINT'S CITY DIARY

I would like to add to Nicholas Davenport's recent cautionary tales about the oil industry the following thought: will the capital market be able to keep pace with the oil companies' enormous demands for capital? The Chase Manhatten Bank expects the financial demands of the world oil industry to exceed £200,000 million by the end of the 1970s. And equally sombre is the fact that the companies are just not being able to build up enough net income to fill in the gaps which cannot be met by borrowed capital and capital recovery.