HC Deb 02 April 1984 vol 57 cc639-40
11. Mr. Douglas

asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on the current percentage of orders coming to United Kingdom suppliers from investment in the United Kingdom continental shelf.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

Figures for the United Kingdom offshore supplies industry's share of the United Kingdom continental shelf market in 1983 will be recorded in my Department's 1984 Brown Book, which will be published as soon as possible after the Easter recess.

Mr. Douglas

Will those figures show clearly the substantial loss to the United Kingdom, through the loss of the Sun Oil contract for the Balmoral field and also, perhaps more pointedly, the loss of the pipe contract, which has now gone to Japan, for Shell's Fulmar field? Are we to take it that the expectations that arose from the cancellation of the gas-gathering scheme and the Government's view that we would get other substantial orders are nothing but a tissue of lies?

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

I utterly disagree with the hon. Gentleman, who should know that orders that have not yet been placed will not appear in the 1983 figures. I share the anxiety about what has happened with regard to Sun Oil, as I have said clearly in the House. With regard to the pipeline, I hope that British companies will produce at a price and to a specification that oil operators require, because unless we do that, we shall not get the orders.