§ Mrs. Winifred Ewingasked the Secretary of State for Energy what voting rights Great Britain will have on the recently agreed International Energy Programme; and if he will list all the parties to the agreement and describe their voting rights, stating which of the parties are oil producers.
§ Mr. VarleyThe following 16 countries are parties to the Agreement on an International Energy Programme: 317W Austria; Belgium; Canada; Denmark; the Federal Republic of Germany; the Republic of Ireland; Italy; Japan; Luxembourg; the Netherlands; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Turkey; United Kingdom; United States.
The voting rights of each of the participating countries are based on a weighting of three units for each country plus an "oil consumption" weight reflecting each country's consumption of oil. Details of the voting weights and of the agreed voting procedures are contained in Article 62 of the Agreement, copies of which have been placed in the Library.
Of the parties to the Agreement, the United States and Canada are the only substantial oil producers at present, although the United Kingdom will become a substantial oil producer in due course. Austria, Germany and Turkey are producers of smaller quantities.