OIL IN BRITAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 70, 23 March 1934, Page 7

OIL IN BRITAIN.

RENEWED INTEREST.

All Petroleum to Belong to The State.

NEW LEGISLATION OUTLINED. (Brltißh Official Wireless.) (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, March 22. The Government is considering measures to stimulate the search for oil in Britain. Since the programme of drilling, financed by the State ended 12 years ago, no large-scale effort of the kind has been made.

The President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Walter Runciman, in the House of Commons to-day stated that the Government had recently received indications of renewed interest in the subject and had therefore decided to review the situation.

As a result, the Government was at once introducing legislation with the principal object of removing some of the main difficulties which arc said to have stood in the way of a search on an extensive scale, and to secure the orderly development of any oil discovered.

Mr. Runciman said the bill provides that the ownership of all petroleum which may exist in Britain, but which is at present unknown, shall be vested in the State. The rights of owners of the surface will be recompensed for disturbances to property, and loss of amenity will be safeguarded.

Persons who wish to search and bore for oil must obtain a license, payment being made to the Exchequer on any oil produced.

Those who secure a license will make their own arrangements with the owners of the land for the necessary facilities, but where such facilities cannot be obtained by agreement provision will be mado for securing a grant of facilities considered by the courts to be necessary on terms which the courts will determine.

The measure was introduced into the House of Lords this evening and read a first time.