ABSTRACT
In April 1996 the Energy Minister Tim Eggar was able to celebrate the continuing achievements of the British oil and gas industry. Introducing the 1996 Energy Report, he noted that the industry ‘was still setting records decades after the first offshore oil fields were discovered’. Output levels for both oil and gas were the highest ever and new investment amounted to 18 per cent of the UK industrial total. Corporate income from the sector had been restored to £18 billion and included a record contribution from gas at £4 billion. Eggar ended by stressing the importance of new European markets for the industry:
The prospective UK-Belgian interconnector will allow new gas developments to find profitable continental sales opportunities. The Government is determined that our European partners should be aware of the benefits of liberalisation of markets and we will continue to press this issue wherever we can. (DTI, 1996)
