§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the current value of North Sea assets which the National Coal Board transferred to the British National Oil Corporation under section 13 of the Petroleum and Submarine Pipelines Act 1975 and the value of those assets entered in the board's accounts at the time of transfer.
§ Mr. GrayThe assets which the National Coal Board transferred to the418W British National Oil Corporation, under section 13 of the Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975, were those of NCB (Exploration) Ltd., and its wholly-owned subsidiary, LS Leasing Ltd. They included interests in some 50 licence blocks, several of which were subsequently relinquished to the Government. Thistle, Dunlin, Statfjord, Murchison, Hutton, Brae and Viking were amongst the fields to which retained licences related.
The assignment of a value to these assets either on the date of transfer on 1 January 1976 or at today's date would be a subjective process depending on the purpose of the valuation and requiring judgments to be made as to likely oil and gas price movements, production rates, and cost inflation. The net book value of these assets entered in the board's accounts at the date of transfer was £81,729,000.