https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee120 ... t/html/237
With the ever-tightening blockade on Japan by the submarines, “The shortage of liquid fuel was Japan’s Achilles' Heel.” Oil imports that had risen to their peak in the first quarter of 1943 were about half that at the same time one year later in 1944 and had completely disappeared/dried up by the same time in 1945. Desperate, Japan tried many forms of improvisations as the oil situation worsened. Industrial oil was made from soybeans, peanuts, coconuts, and castor beans. Potatoes, sugar, rice, and sake were even converted to alcohol to be used as fuel. By 1944, civilian gasoline consumption was down to 257,000 gallons, just 4% of the 1940 figure. Japan revived its 1937 synthetic fuel attempts, and in 1943, Japan’s synthetic fuel production amounted to 1 million barrels – only 8% of the target amount. Over half of this value was in Manchuria, which was useless in late 1944 and 1945 due to the blockade. Besides, synthetic fuel was a drain on resources, manpower, and management and was more of a liability than an asset.
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The Imperial Navy, in growing desperation for fuel, launched the pine root campaign where pine roots were dug up and heated for 12 hours to produce a crude oil substitute. Each gallon of pine root produced required 2.5 man-days of work. Thus, the official 12,000 bbl/d target would have required 1.25 million persons per day! By June 1945, pine roots were producing 75,000 barrels per month fuel. However, the refining technology for pine roots oil was still lacking.
Could we consider all this "production" is taken into account in the 3 oil points here?
I am asking because the symbol is with coal for synthetic oil in WPE. And also, Japanese synthetic oil production really started in 1943 when the US submarines were more than annoying.
This oil field is there from the beginning.
- oil.JPG (62.99 KiB) Viewed 1150 times
