§ Mr. Litterickasked the Secretary of State for Energy (1) if he will publish in theOfficial Report figures showing the estimated annual tonnage of crude oil being brought ashore based on current daily landings together with an estimate of its gross annual value;
(2) if he will publish in theOfficial Report an estimate of the significance of the current daily tonnage of crude oil being brought ashore as a percentage of the total annual crude oil requirements of the United Kingdom economy;
(3) if he will publish in theOfficial Report up-to-date estimates of the capital costs of crude oil production in the North Sea oilfields, together with comparative figures for Gulf and North American crude;
(4) if he will publish in theOfficial Report figures showing the daily tonnage of crude oil currently being brought ashore from the North Sea oilfields, 65W together with estimates of probable daily oil production from the North Sea being made 12 months ago.
§ Dr. J. Dickson MabonThe daily rate of production in June was 229,000 bpd. which would be equivalent to an annual rate of 11.2 million tonnes, around 12 per cent. of United Kingdom crude oil requirement, with a gross value around £600–700 million. However, a meaningful annual rate of production cannot he calculated from the current daily rate, which is changing frequently as production wells on the fields now coming on stream come into operation. But the Department's 1976 annual report, the Brown Book, forecast 1976 production in the range of 15–20 million tonnes, and if annual production was at the lower end of this range we would be in line with the forecast contained on page 16 of the 1975 Brown Book.
On the question of costs, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 22nd July to the hon. Member for Melton (Mr. Latham)—[Vol. 915, c. 585]—in which I estimated that costs of crude oil production in the 14 commercial oilfields will be in the range of $2–7 per barrel. Comparable figures for North America are not available.