Marquess of HARTINGTONasked the Secretary for Mines the names of the five applicants for licences to bore for petroleum whose applications have been held up pending legislation; the dates of applications; the areas to which the 1896W applications applied; and why the applications could not be granted pending legislation?
§ Mr. E. BROWNAll applications for licences under the Petroleum (Production) Act, 1918, were treated as confidential until the licence was issued, and I regret that I am not, therefore, in a position to furnish the particulars asked for in the first and third parts of the question. In reply to the second part, the dates of the applications were between January, 1931, and February, 1933. As regards the last part, the Government decided that as the whole situation in regard to the development of oil in this country is brought under review in the legislation now before Parlament, it was undesirable that any further licences should be granted until Parliament had had an opportunity of reaching a decision on the new legislation. Before a licence was issued under the 1918 Act, certain conditions and formalities had to be complied with, the more important of which were the furnishing of evidence that the applicants had acquired rights to enter on at least a portion of the area in respect of which a licence was sought, ability and willingness to undertake a certain amount of drilling, and the shape and dimensions of the area to be licesed. In each of the five cases some of these matters were outstanding when the Government announced their decision.