Mr. Wm. Rossasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the average price of manufactured and of natural gas, respectively, in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. Moyle,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 14th June 1976; Vol. 913, c. 62], gave the following information:
No natural gas is available in Northern Ireland. 13 separate gas undertakings supply piped gas, of which approximately 94 per cent. is manufactured from naphtha, an oil refinery product. The balance is produced by mixing liquified petroleum gas with air.
In 1975–76, on the evidence of preliminary information about total sales and total revenue for these 13 undertakings, the average price of all gas sold was approximately 36.5p a therm. The average price in the current year will be considerably higher and will reflect tariff increases already averaging about 25 per cent.