HC Deb 28 May 1970 vol 801 cc565-6W
Mr. Hector Hughes

asked the Minister of Technology if he will take steps to amend the licences he grants to drill for oil in the North Sea so as to provide that oil found there shall be brought by pipelines to Aberdeen instead of, as now, to English terminals.

Mr. Harold Lever:

In accordance with the regulations under which these licences are granted, all petroleum produced in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea has to be delivered on shore in the United Kingdom, but I have no power to specify how and to what place in the United Kingdom it shall be delivered.

No commercial discovery of oil has yet been made in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea.