§ 120. Mr. A. Royleasked the Minister of Power what is the capacity, in millions of cubic feet a day, of oil-based town gas plant in operation or under consideration by the gas industry; how much of this plant will remain in operation in 1970 and 1975; and how much, by capacity and by value, will have to be written off, other than in the course of normal depreciation, by 1975, assuming that by then all gas requirements will be supplied from natural gas.
§ Mr. MarshThe daily capacity of oil-based plant in operation, under construction, or planned is about 6,500 million cubic feet a day, of which over 6,000 millions will still be in use in 1970. I cannot say how much will be needed in 1975. The residual book value in 1975 of all oil-based plant will be about £200 million.
§ Mr. McGuireasked the Minister of Power how many oil-based plants will not now be built by the gas industry because of the discovery of North Sea gas; and what would have been the combined capacity of those plants.
§ Mr. Marsh50 plants planned last year will not now be built. Their capacity would have been 2,500 million cubic feet a day.