§ Mr. Tebbitasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list, for each year since 1970, the total direct capital investment in North Sea oil exploration and exploitation provided by (a) the private sector and (b) the public sector.
§ Dr. MahonAnnual gross domestic fixed capital formation by the United Kingdom oil and natural gas exploration and production industry since 1970 is published in National Income and Expenditure 1966–76 and in theMonthly Digest of Statistics and is as follows:
£ million 1970 40 1971 68 1972 120 1973 183 1974 600 1975 1,621 1976 2,183 1977 2,009 These figures exclude expenditure upon exploration, other than appraisal conducted on or in the vicinity of fields in production or under development, which is treated as current expenditure in the national accounts. Details of such exploration expenditure have been collected by my Department only from 1976, in which year it amounted to £300 million and in 1977 it was £370 million. Total expenditure upon exploration in prior years is estimated to have been some £600 million.
544WInformation is not available separately on this basis for the private and public sectors.