Moguls and Mandarins

6

Developments in British Government Oil Policy in the Inter-War Period

In the final years before the outbreak of the Second World War British oil planning was designed to meet both defence and civilian needs in time of war. It was concerned with assembling data, making plans and taking action to secure adequate oil supplies for Britain, its colonies and dominions in time of war. Securing supplies also meant securing tanker transport for those supplies, ensuring sufficient – and the right sort of – refinery capacity, building up reserves as well as the storage to hold them, and finally, making arrangements to share supplies with Britain’s major potential continental ally, France.

British oil planning between the wars was undertaken by two major ...