§ Mr. Laurance Reedasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will give the latest estimate of oil and gas reserves in United Kingdom Continental Shelf areas, together with the estimated production from United Kingdom offshore oil and gas fields in 1980 expressed as a percentage of total United Kingdom energy requirements.
§ Mr. EmeryReserves of natural gas are about 32 trillion cubic feet—32 x 1012 cu. ft. Sufficient reserves of oil have been established to sustain production of around 25 million tons per annum by the mid 1970s. It is feasible that these sources could account for something like two-fifths of our energy requirements in 1980.