§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement in connection with his proposals of July 1994 to establish a working group on floating production systems for use in oil fields in the North sea and the Atlantic; if he will list the names and positions of those appointed to the working group of floating production systems; what estimate he has made of the development costs of the Foinaven and Schiehallion oil fields to the west of Shetland; and what percentage of this work he assesses will be allocated to domestically based support services.
§ Mr. Charles Wardle[holding answer 29 November 1994]: The working group on floating production systems has been set up and will report to Ministers by the end of the year. The industry members are listed below.
The operator responsible—BP—for the development of the Foinaven and Schiehallion oil fields to the west of Shetland has estimated development costs for Foinaven to be £550 million and has estimated that around 70 per cent. of this expenditure will be allocated to the United Kingdom. Schiehallion is not yet far enough advanced to estimate development costs.
Floating production systems working group industry membership Name Mr. Mike Baugh Hamilton Mr. Martin Fielding Amerada Hess Mr. Chris Grey Conoco Mr. Alan Hunt Shell Mr. John Hutton Texaco Dr. Rob Kenison BP Dr. Reg Potter Marathon
§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade how many contracts have so far been allocated to United Kingdom-based companies in connection with research into, and development of, floating production systems.
§ Mr. Charles Wardle[holding answer 29 November 1994]: A large number of R and D projects have been sponsored by oil companies and the Government, associated with floating production systems. However, many of these projects are not unique to floating production systems. They also apply to other aspects of offshore technology so it is not possible to assign numbers in the way that hon. Lady requested.