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T HE C U B A K 10 V I K W 



Tanktr Discharging ()il at Dock of Cuban Central Railroad, Cienfuegos, for tlie Texas ()i\ Co. 



CRUDE OIL FOR FUEL IN CUBA 



By H. O. .\evtlle 



Pre\ious to the difficulties wliich arose witli tlie scai'city of sliippiiifr during tlie 

 War recently ended, the use of oil as fuel for our sugar mills and railways had 

 from time to time been suggested but never with such persistence as to bring about 

 the changes required in order to permit it to compete with coal. A concession 

 given by ('ul)a's Government to an oil company, a subsidiary of one of the large 

 companies in the North, for the introduction of crude petroleum for refining and 

 other purposes, and high duties on crude petroleum of any character 

 authorized by Congress in order to uphold and maintain this concession, made the 

 use of oil for fuel purposes impos.sible. It did not take long, however, after the 

 War began and after shipping became scarce, for Cuba's sugar industry to com- 

 mence the agitation of the entry free of duty of crude oil. This, of course, re- 

 sulted, as had previous attempts, in objections being raised by the company holding 

 the concession, but their olijection was met and overcome by the limitation of the 

 privilege of importation of crude oil to that class of oil which either was not 

 adapted to refining piu-poses. being suitable only for use -as fuel, or of those oils 

 which had l)een refined abroad to such an extent as to be further serviceable only 

 as combustible. 



The law providing for the entry of crude petroleum for fuel was passed July 

 14fh, 1917, and is known as "la ley de petroleo," and provided for the payment 

 upon imported fuel oil of such a duty as would make the cost of the oil the same 

 as that of coal in relation to their respective steam producing capacities. In other 

 words, as it is estimated that 4 barrels of tlie average fuel oil is equivalent to one 

 ton of average quality coal, the duty was so fixed as to make the diify on this 



