§ Mr. Adam Hunterasked the Minister of Technology what plans he has for initiating a study of the economics of making oil from coal; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Alan WilliamsWe have no plans for initiating a fresh study of the economics of making oil from coal since this matter is already kept under review by the scientists and engineers of the National Coal Board. B.C.U.R.A. Industrial Laboratories, and the Department. These scientists and engineers make it part of their business to keep in touch with research and development being carried out overseas into new and improved processes in which coal is utilised, and I am assured that at the present time the relative prices of coal to crude oil in this country are so unfavourable to the manufacture of oil from coal that it would be grossly uneconomic even using one of the technically advanced processes currently being developed in the United States of America.