HC Deb 02 July 1974 vol 876 cc123-4W
Mr. Watt

asked the Secretary of State for Energy how wide an area of sea bed will be lost to fishing by the oilfields so far discovered in the North Sea.

Mr. Strang

There will be an estimated maximum of 80 drilling platforms operating on the oil fields so far discovered in the United Kingdom sector of the North Sea by 1980. Each has a safety zone of 500 metres radius, so that the total area in which fishing will be prohibited will be at most 25 square miles. In addition, fishermen are asked to avoid trawling over pipelines.

will express these figures as a percentage of the total number of persons economically active in each of the eight regions, and as a percentage relative to the average for Great Britain.

Mr. Booth

The latest available information, from the Census of Population held in April 1966, is as follows:

Back to