§ Mr. David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Energy what are the workable reserves of shale oil in Great Britain; and at what price of crude oil it becomes economic to start working these reserves again.
§ Mr. StrangAccording to estimates published by the United Nations in 1967, total United Kingdom resources are in the range of 1,500 million to 2,000 85W million tons of shale. Workable reserves are probably very much less: studies are being undertaken by the Institute of Geological Sciences to obtain more exact information on this. Mr. A. F. Macleod Matthews, a consultant, was recently appointed to carry out a study for my Department to indicate whether shale oil production could be revived on an economic basis, regard being paid to oil price levels among other factors.