§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what he assesses would be the price of natural gas assessed relatively to crude oil currently valued at about $13.50 a barrel.
§ Dr. MabonIn terms of average thermal equivalence and the current exchange rate, $13.50 a barrel for crude oil would represent roughly 12.1 pence per therm. The price of natural gas cannot, however, be directly related to that figure. In so far as gas competes with petroleum products rather than with other forms of energy, these are distillate heating oil and lighter fractions, the prices of which are higher than and in complex relationship to that of crude oil.