§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the expected rate of depletion of reserves of natural gas within United Kingdom or European Community ownership, at those volumes of gas contracted to be burned by gas-powered power stations in operation, or likely to be approved, stated in approximate volume, time and percentage terms.
§ Mr. Eggar[holding answer 22 October 1992] My Department's latest estimates of United Kingdom gas reserves are set out in the Brown Book "Development of Oil and Gas Resources of the United Kingdom". The rate at which gas reserves are depleted will depend on many factors including demand, development costs, prices, levels of imports and technological developments. I am not aware of any plans to import gas from European Community countries.
As my right hon. Friend told the House on 21 October, we will be producing for the House the conclusions we draw from our estimates of reserves, and will report on the scale of gas-generated power stations in production, in build and in the planning process.