§ 30. Mr. Hardyasked the Secretary of State for Energy by what date he now expects half the available resources of oil and gas in known North Sea fields to have been exhausted.
§ Mr. GraySubject to a considerable margin of uncertainty, I expect half the proven and probable hydrocarbon reserves in present North Sea oil discoveries to be produced by the late 1980s on current trends. The rate of depletion of dry gas fields will be dependent on the availability of imported gas at acceptable prices.