During the past decade Roumania has necessarily catered for the export trade, for the volume of crude oil produced has been far beyond its requirements. The great petroleum storage port of Constantza has been made the centre for this export business, and the completion of a trunk pipe-line from the Roumanian refineries to the port was one of the most recent enterprises undertaken by the Roumanian Government prior to the war. During the period when Roumania was under German control its terminal point was so changed that the line ran to a spot which rendered the transport of petroleum to Germany a matter of ease. Now, however, Germany’s plans have been frustrated, and Roumania’s great pipe-line will have its terminal point at Constantza, where all kinds of petroleum products can be pumped direct to the oil tankers. THE DUTCH INDIES.--The growth of the petroleum industry in the Dutch Indies has been surprisingly rapid, and this growth synchronizes with the advent of the “Shell” Company into the Far Eastern fields. It is stated that there are many hundreds of square miles of territory in the East Indian Islands which can be remuneratively developed; at the moment, however, though but the fringe of exploitation has been touched, the production has been amazing. Eighteen years ago, it was placed at 300,000 tons of crude oil; last year it nearly reached 2,000,000 tons. In Sumatra several companies successfully operated for many years, but most of them eventually became merged with the Royal Dutch Company, whose interests now are also those of the “Shell” Company. As to Borneo, the “Shell” Company commenced active developments in 1900, or thereabouts, for it had acquired an area of approximately 460 square miles. The fields rapidly responded to the drill, and the crude oil production rose by leaps and bounds. The crude was of a high-grade character, and for a long time it taxed the energies of those responsible for the good conduct of the concern, as to exactly what should be done with some of the refined products. As a matter of fact, some thousands of tons were burned, for at that time there was little or no demand for motor spirit. I well remember when the Company’s Chairman--Sir Marcus Samuel--faced the shareholders in 1900 and explained that if only the Company could realize 6d. per gallon for its motor spirit, what handsome profits would accrue. But events have marched quickly since those days. The motor-car has come to stay, and what seemed a useless product of the Far Eastern oils in the early days of development, is now one of the chief sources of revenue. The advent of the heavier motor spirits has also been of great benefit to the Borneo petroleum industry, for the public has grown accustomed to recognize that it is not specific gravity which counts in the quality of motor spirit, but the closeness of the boiling points of its constituent fractions. To-day, the Far Eastern fields supply