EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE Board of TRADE ON THE SECOND READING OF BILL FOR THE PETROLEUM (PRODUCTION) Act, 1934. (See Hansard of 19th June, 1934.)
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"The question that we have had to ask ourselves in dealing with this subject is a simple one; does the existing system seriously hamper the search for oil? The answer to that is quite certain. It does interfere with the search for oil, and if it interferes with the search for oil, we ought to do what we can to grant facilities while, as I say, safe-guarding such rights as at present exist. But let us be quite clear on the first point, that we do desire to facilitate the search for oil.
"The second point that I would wish to make is this, that if we desire to facilitate the search for oil, we must examine carefully the rights that at present exist. As far as we know, there are very small petroleum rights to be found anywhere in the United Kingdom. It is certain that landowners and site owners in various parts of the country have never imagined for a moment that petroleum was adding to the value of their property. If petroleum were found in any area or under any land or site, I am sure it would only be in rare instances, and they are provided for in the Schedule to the Bill, and it would come as a great surprise to the landowner. Secondly, those who at present may hope to find oil under their properties have done little or nothing in the way of exploration, and, as far as I know, there has been no land, of large area or small, which has changed hands with oil bearing any part in the consideration. No money has been paid for the transfer of any oil under a property. Parliament has, moreover, held in the past, and certainly in one Measure if not in two Measures, that property in petroleum is in a different category from property in coal, and very largely for that simple reason, that nobody imagines for a moment at the present time that there has been any transaction which was dependent on the knowledge that oil was found under any site of land.
Any boring for the ascertainment of coal, comparatively complicated as it is, is a simple matter compared with the ascertainment of the position of petroleum, Imaging the difficulty in which an oil company would be placed
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