Statement by the President Upon Issuing Proclamation Relating to Petroleum Imports.

I AM TODAY making a technical amendment to Proclamation 3279 which established a mandatory control program for adjusting and regulating imports of crude oil and its principal products into the United States.

The amendment provides for adjustments in oil import levels for overestimates and under-estimates of total oil demand in Districts I-IV by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines. It is on the basis of such estimates that import levels into these Districts are presently established. The amendment will require the Secretary of the Interior to make corrective adjustments in the mandatory oil import program, in order to prevent over-estimates and under-estimates of total demand from having an unintended impact on levels of importation of oil into the United States.

Districts I-IV include all of the United States with the exception of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.