OIL: Texas Cut

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Texas independent oil producers, hard-hit by the growing U.S. oil surplus, took stern measures to end their troubles. At their request, the Texas Railroad Commission last week cut back the state's crude production for March from an eleven-day-per-month operating rate to nine days—the lowest rate ever set by the 28-year-old commission. The flow of oil from Texas' 182,000 wells will be cut by 513,814 barrels daily.

Despite a hard winter, stocks of heating oil are still far above last year's level; gasoline stocks are at an alltime high. Refiners in Oklahoma and Texas have been forced to cut crude prices, and pressure is building up for a further slash in Oklahoma allowables. Domestic producers blame the situation on heavy imports, but importers are complaining that their quotas under the Government's voluntary-import quota program are not high enough to enable them to operate efficiently. While imports of petroleum and oil products reached a record high of 1,897,500 bbl. at latest report, the Government did not consider the weekly figures significant, since they often vary widely, expects the monthly import figures to be within the voluntary quotas.