§ Mr. Hall-Davisasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the approximate annual cost, based on current oil prices and consumption, of the petrol element of United Kingdom oil and petrol imports and its proportion of the total cost of oil and petrol imports.
§ Mr. VarleyNet imports of motor spirit during 1974 cost about £99 million and accounted for about 2½ per cent. of the total value of net imports of crude oil and all petroleum products. In addition, crude oil worth £3,852 million was imported and about 13 per cent. by weight of this was refined into motor spirit. It would not, however, be correct to attribute 13 per cent. of the cost of crude oil to the motor spirit produced from it. Owing to the nature of refinery operations, there is not a simple 1:1 relationship between the input of crude oil and the output of any particular product.
§ Mr. Ridleyasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the price of petrol expressed in terms of the proportion of the current average weekly wage that will buy one gallon of 3-star petrol, in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Holland, respectively.
§ Mr. VarleyAlthough there are current data on petrol prices in the countries requested, information on current average weekly wages is not available from international sources. It is, therefore, not possible to make the necessary calculations.
In the United Kingdom the present price of 3-star petrol is about 72p a gallon. There is not a comparable grade generally marketed in the other countries mentioned. However, the following table sets out current typical prices for regular and premium grades of petrol.
(Pence/gallon) Regular petrol Premium petrol France 74 80 Germany 66½ 71½ United Kingdom 71 72½ Netherlands 74 76