§ Mr. McKelveyasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is his estimate of the cost of reducing the lead content in petrol from 0.4 g. per litre to 0.15 g. per litre by 1985;
(2) what would be the cost of eliminating the lead content in petrol.
§ Mrs. ChalkerI have been asked to reply.
The planned reduction to 0.15 g. per litre will require the oil industry to invest over £200 million over the next three years. In addition it will require about 2½ per cent. more crude oil to maintain petrol quality. At present volumes of consumption and assuming a future average price of crude oil of about £250 per tonne, the additional cost will be £150 million per year.
For lead-free petrol the motor industry would need to re-equip to make low compression engines in sufficient numbers and the oil industry would need to provide the increased volume of petrol that these less efficient engines would need. Up-to-date costs of this would have to be estimated by the industries concerned taking account of the time scale of the change and of their operations throughout Europe. The major ongoing cost would be a further increase of about 2½ per cent. in crude oil needed: on the assumptions about volume and price used above this would raise the cost to £300 million per year.