Britain: An official handbook > 1966

INDUSTRY
Research
PETROLEUM
Indigenous
Production
283
the mines which had closed or were scheduled for closure during the present
decade. In July 1965 the Government announced that a fresh study was being
made of the NCB’s capital structure as the industry appeared to be considerably
overcapitalised. Legislation is to be introduced before the end of 1965 to effect
a capital reorganisation, including the writing off of about £400 million of the
existing debt.
About three-quarters of coal output will come from new and reconstructed
collieries by 1966; many will have a daily output of up to 6,000 tons while a
few will be capable of up to 8,000 tons. Horizon mining methods are being
extended, lay-outs for pit-bottoms, new designs for loading stations and
mechanical handling methods are being widely introduced. Remotely operated
longwall faces are operating successfully at two collieries and experiments
are being extended to others. The Bevercotes colliery in the East Midlands is
the first in the world to be fully mechanised and automated from the coal face
to the surface; it commenced operations in the second half of 1965. Exploration
of coal reserves is being intensified and boring for coal under the sea has been
completed in the Firth of Forth and is in progress off the Durham coast.
The NCB has three research organisations: a Coal Research Establishment,
at Stoke Orchard, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, providing facilities for
fundamental research; a Mining Research Establishment, for the investigation
of underground problems, at Isleworth, Middlesex; and a Central Engineering
Establishment for developing new machines and testing equipment, near
Bretby, Derbyshire. In 1959 the Board set up a new department concerned
primarily with the further development of new processes for making smokeless
fuels. In 1947 the NCB took over the Coal Survey, a national organisation
for surveying coal resources within Britain; it has 70 laboratories in the various
coalfields.
A number of autonomous research associations receiving grants from the
NCB and the Ministry of Technology include the British Coal Utilisation
Research Association, the British Coke Research Association and the Coal Tar
Research Association. Much of the work of other bodies, such as the Safety
in Mines Research Establishment (SMRE), is closely related to the Board’s
problems; the SMRE carries out research on explosions and fires, pneumo¬
coniosis, engineering and metallurgy.
The petroleum industry in Britain dates back to 1850, when Dr. James Young,
a Glasgow chemist, succeeded in obtaining lamp oil and lubricants from
natural mineral oil occurring in the Derbyshire coal measures. The Scottish
shale deposits, yielding similar products, were first worked in 1858 and ceased
production in 1962.
Sources of crude oil within Britain meet only 1 ton in every 600 of total
United Kingdom requirements, the remainder being imported from overseas.
Annual production of crude oil from indigenous oilfields now totals nearly
130,000 tons.
Prospecting for crude petroleum has so far led to the establishment of
several small oilfields, notably in Nottinghamshire (Eakring, Egmanton and
Bothamsell), in Leicestershire (Plungar), in Lincolnshire (Gainsborough), in
Lancashire (Formby) and in Dorset (Kimmeridge).
Seismic prospecting in the North Sea has been going on since 1962. Under
the Continental Shelf Act 1964, the Minister of Power, by a system of
licensing for exploration and production, controls those activities in the areas