§ Mr. Ancramasked the Secretary of State for Energy what steps he is taking to encourage the development of a gas-gathering pipeline to bring ashore gas from North Sea oil installations at present being flared.
§ Mr. GrayI expect oilfields currently flaring substantial quantities of gas and with several years' potential gas production left to have gas conservation systems in reliable operation well before a new gas gathering pipeline to shore could be constructed. It is with an eye to preventing massive flaring in the mid-1980s and beyond that I invited British Gas and Mobil North Sea Ltd. to conduct a feasibility and design study of a North Sea564W gas gathering system. I look forward to receiving the report of that study in the next few weeks.