§ Mr. Grimondasked the Secretary of State for Energy if he has any estimates of the comparative size of the energy reserves in oil, coal and gas in England, 582W Wales and Scotland, respectively, including the areas of the North Sea presumed appropriate to these countries.
§ Mr. BennFigures for oil and gas have previously been published in the 1975 Brown Book which show from presently designated areas that "proven", "probable" and "possible" reserves in existing licences total 3,100 million tons of oil—5,270 mtce—and 45 trillion cu. ft. of gas—1,640 mtce. It is well known that the majority of oil reserves have been discovered in waters to the North East of the British Isles and 60 per cent. of free gas reserves in the Southern Gas (Geological) Basin with 40 per cent. free gas and associated gas in the Northern (Geological) Basin. The latest estimate of the total known amount of United Kingdom coal reserves in place as reported to the World Energy Conference is about 97,300 million tons of which about 11,700 million is in Scotland, 24,700 million in Wales and 60,900 million in England. The corresponding estimate of economically recoverable coal reserves currently accessible to existing mines and extensions to existing mines is about 3,800 million tons of which about 3,160 million is in England, 290 million in Scotland and 350 million in Wales. In addition, there are further substantial recoverable reserves which can become accessible in the future both at existing and possible new pits.
Because of the differences in classification of coal reserves compared with those for oil and gas, it is not possible to compare categories directly.