§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy (1) on what basis since 1979 his Department has granted licences to search and bore for petroleum under section 2 of the 1934 Act;
(2) what method has been used to allocate individual petroleum licences since June 1979.
§ Mr. ParkinsonSince 1979 licences have mainly been issued on a discretionary basis, in which the applicant's financial and technical competence and his ability to meet other aims of Government policy, notably his readiness to pursue a comprehensive exploration of the licensed area, have been the major factors in deciding whether or not to grant a licence. A small number of offshore production licences have been awarded by a sealed-bid cash tender system.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if, before granting licences to search and bore for petroleum, his Department informs the freehold owners of land affected of the intention to issue such licences.
§ Mr. ParkinsonFreehold owners of land affected are not informed of the intention to grant licences, because the award of a petroleum licence by itself does not confer on the licence holder any rights over the freeholder's land.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy how his Department notifies freehold owners of 559W land to be affected that it is the intention to grant licences under the Petroleum (Production) Regulations 1976 (S.I. 1976 No. 1129).
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe 1976 regulations referred to by my hon. Friend have now been superseded by other regulations and licences are no longer awarded under them.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy what rights are conferred on an operator granted a petroleum production licence in relation to land the operator does not own.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe grant of a petroleum licence confers on the licensee the rights to search for and get petroleum in the licensed area, depending on the precise type of licence he holds, irrespective of the ownership of the land in question. However, it does not by itself confer any other rights, and so he would have to obtain permission to enter the land before he could exercise his rights under the petroleum licence.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy how many petroleum licences have been issued by his Department in each year since 1979.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe figures for all types of licences issued, both offshore and onshore, are as follows:
Year Number of licences issued 1979 44 1980 138 1981 61 1982 61 1983 127 1984 26 1985 128 1986 94 1987 68 11988 67 1 To date.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will set out the criteria laid down for determining the price to be paid for petroleum licences.
§ Mr. ParkinsonLicences are awarded in return for initial application fees and subsequent periodic rental payments. Application fees are set to cover the administrative costs of dealing with the application. The rental payments on various types of licences are designed to be sufficiently low in the early years of the licence to encourage exploration. In the longer-term licences, once the exploration phase has been completed the general principle is to increase the rental year by year in order to encourage the licensee to surrender any areas not required for petroleum development.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy in what circumstances it is possible to vary the terms of a petroleum licence.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe petroleum licence is a contractual document and it is not possible to vary any of its terms except by agreement between the parties.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy how many petroleum licences have been granted, withdrawn or given up, amended or varied, in each year since 1979.
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§ Mr. ParkinsonI refer my hon. Friend to the figures given to him today for the issue of petroleum licences. The figures for surrendered licences of all types are as follows:
Year Number of licences surrendered 1979 6 1980 7 1981 9 1982 25 1983 31 1984 21 1985 27 1986 27 1987 65 11988 7 1 To date. Notes:
- 1. Figures do not include licences expiring at the end of the term.
- 2. Some of the surrendered licences were replaced with different types of licences.
Each licence contains an agree work obligation which is commercially confidential to the licensee. It is not uncommon for these obligations to be varied or amended. Likewise, assignments of licence interests and changes of company names are frequently the reasons for licence changes. Records on amendments to the licences are not kept in a readily available form and the amount of work involved in compiling such statistics would he disproportionate to the value of the information obtained.
§ Sir Gerard VaughanTo ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list the companies to which petroleum licences have been granted since June 1979 and the price paid for each licence.
§ Mr. ParkinsonThe companies granted petroleum licences since 1979 are published in theLondon Gazette and Edinburgh Gazette, copies of which are available in the Library of the House. The fees and charges for petroleum licences are detailed in the gazette notices inviting applications and in the relevant regulations governing the award of each type of licence, which are also available in the Library of the House. It is not possible to give a total price for every licence awarded as the majority of licences issued since 1979 are still in existence, and the total consideration for the licence will depend on future unknown events, such as whether the licence is voluntarily surrendered before it reaches its full term.