§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will circulate in the Official Report a table showing in terms of the volume of United Kingdom consumption the division of a barrel of oil between the principal petroleum products in 1972 and 1978, including refinery fuel and other waste, and (a) the price of crude oil in 1972 and in the third and fourth quarters of 1979 and (b) the wholesale price of the finished barrel in 1972 and currently, excluding all taxes and weighted as far as possible by the pattern of consumption in 1972 and 1978, respectively.
§ Mr. GrayTable 1 gives the percentage division of a barrel of oil in terms of the volume of United Kingdom consumption. As the net selling value of the individual products—exclusive of taxes—is available on a consistent basis only since 1973 from theBusiness Monitor series of statistics issued by the Business Statistics Office I have incorporated data for 1973 in the tabulation.
Table 2 gives the overall average price paid for crude oil in the United Kingdom. Table 3 shows the estimated wholesale price per barrel of petroleum products weighted according to the pattern of con- 574W sumption in the United Kingdom; information for 1972 is not available.
TABLE 1 PERCENTAGE DIVISION OF A OIL IN TERMS OF UNITED KINGDOM VOLUME CONSUMPTION Per cent. Principal product 1972 1973 1978 Avtur 3.5 3.7 4.8 Burning Oil 2.6 2.8 2.8 Derv 4.7 5.0 6.3 Fuel Oil 37.1 34.7 30.0 Gas Oil 13.6 13.3 14.5 Marine Bunker 4.7 4.8 2.8 Motor Spirit 14.3 14.9 19.5 Naphtha 6.6 7.4 5.2 Refinery Fuel 5.8 6.2 6.8 Miscellaneous 7.1 7.2 7.3 TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0
TABLE 2 PRICE OF CRUDE OIL period £/tonne 1972 8.76 1973 11.44 1978 53.53 3rd Quarter 1979 72.54 4th Quarter 1979 78.80 (estimate)
TABLE 3 WHOLESALE PRICE PER BARREL OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS WEIGHTED ACCORDING TO UNITED KINGDOM CONSUMPTION PATTERNS Year Wholesale price £ 1973 1.82 1978 7.95
§ Mr. Altonasked the Secretary of State for Energy what has been the percentage increase in the cost of gas in real terms since 1970; and what has been the percentage increase in the cost of oil over the same period.
§ Mr. GrayIn the domestic sector the prices in real terms of gas and heating oil decreased by 32 per cent. and increased by 77 per cent. respectively between 1970 and December 1979.
The latest available information on gas and heavy fuel oil purchases by manufacturing industry relates to the third quarter of 1979, at which time the prices of these two fuels in real terms had decreased by 16 per cent. and increased by 136 per cent. respectively compared with 1970.