CONFIDENTIAL
the American side.
the
5. On oil Mr. Hirahara referred to the two meetings this week; meeting of oil companies in London on 25 January and the meeting between the major oil companies and OPEC in Tehran on 28 January. There had also been strong statements by Libya and the Shah. The Libyan attitude was not surprising but the Shah's had been somewhat more so. Mr. Bottomley commented that it was perhaps natural that the Shah should be taking this sort of line in order to secure his own position. His press conference had, however, included what seemed to be a very important point; namely, that if, after an arrangement with the Gulf countries, arrangements with the Mediterranean countries turned out more favourably for the producing countries, then the Iranian Government would not demand further increases from the oil companies. Mr. Hirahara said that Japan was now the world's leading oil importer and the second largest consumer of oil. 90% of her oil imports came from the Middle East. In reply to a question he said that he had so far heard no reaction from the Arabian Oil Company to the
London meeting which they had attended as observers. But the fundamental position of the Japanese Government was that it' should take
a common front with other consumer countries, Nevertheless the Arabian
oil company had its own concessions and individual interests which needed to be safeguarded. Mr. Bottomley said that he thought it was very important to try to obtain a period of stability on oil prices by pressing for a 5 year agreement. It appeared, however, that whichever
way the situation developed Japan and Britain as consumers would
probably have to pay more for their oil. It was interesting that the OPEC countries did not appear to want to break up the present system operating in the oil world. In the very long term the system would
probably have to change but at the moment we considered that it was as
efficient as any other. Mr. Bottomley added that Britain was of course concerned about her major oil companies, BP and Shell, but she was even more concerned about the situation as a consumer country. Mr. Hirahara
did not react.
¡
British Embassy
1
TOKYO
;
CONFIDENTIAL
1