§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Energy what quantity of natural gas, expressed in volume, value and coal equivalent terms, is at present being flared at wellheads in the Scottish jurisdiction sector of the North Sea; and what estimates have been made of the wastage by flaring over the next 10 years.
§ Dr. MahonThe figures given below are for the United Kingdom continental shelf where there are no sectors for this purpose. The volume of gas flared from United Kingdom continental shelf oilfields in May 1978 was 283 million cubic metres—about 0.4 million tons of coal equivalent. No intrinsic value can be ascribed to the gas flared during this period. If there had been no associated gas flaring, 4.5 million tons of oil worth about £250 million could not have been produced.
During the next three to four years, the increasing level of gas injection and the completion of pipelines for delivering associated gas to shore should reduce considerably the level of gas flaring propor- 314W tional to oil production. I expect gas flaring from future fields to be kept to the bare technical and economic minimum.