Orders of the Day — Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-Lines Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 30 April 1975.

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Photo of Dr Colin Phipps Dr Colin Phipps , Dudley West 12:00, 30 April 1975

If the hon. Gentleman reads the document in full, he will discover that our conclusion was that participation by the National Hydrocarbon Corporation with the industry was the best possible result. I am delighted to say that my right hon. Friend has now accepted that conclusion and that that is the form of the Bill. It is because, as my right hon. Friend has pointed out, we wish to keep the international oil industry here that we have taken this particular form of national participation. I stress that the present Government are in no way opposed to the multinational oil companies and their participation in this country The Oil Taxation Bill has illustrated the extreme solicitude that my right hon. Friends in the Treasury have shown towards the oil companies. The real point about having a BNOC is the positive—in a public enterprise sense—aspects that flow from it. It is not just a question of our controlling 51 per cent., or whatever percentage it is, of the oil in the North Sea. It is also a question of those matters that flow from it.

The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Grimond) asked whether the BNOC would be able to indulge in downstream activities. The Bill specifically provides that it may, with the permission of the Secretary of State. It is in the downstream activities that many of the companies make their largest profits. That is the area in which the Opposition would specifically prohibit the BNOC operating.

Apart from being able to operate in that area, BNOC will be able to operate internationally. The right hon. Member for Knutsford (Mr. Davies) may not believe in that. ENI has been an enormous international success, as has ELF. Those companies have also taken with them wherever they have gone Italian and French industry engaged in the oil business. It is no surprise to me that French and Italian companies have succeeded in obtaining orders for the North Sea ahead of British companies. It is because they have been supported for many years by an indigenous national oil company. The way in which Italian expertise has followed ENI and AGIP is remarkable. We have had Italian and French pipelines and refineries.

This promotion of the national interest in its totality is an essential feature of BNOC. We see it not as a narrow tax-gathering company but as the nucleus of something much more important, something much larger and international. It may be that Opposition Members do not share that vision, but I hope that they will allow us to work to see its fruition.