asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will obtain, and publish in the Official Report, the total tonnage of crude oil and oil products that entered the Thames Estuary for each of the years 1964 to 1974, inclusive; and his estimate of the growth of this traffic over each of the next six years, assuming the proposed new refineries at Canvey Island and Cliffe are built and become operational.

Information has been provided by the Port of London Authority for traffic with destinations other than the Medway, and by the Port of Medway Authority for destinations in the Medway. Tonnages of oil moving in and out of the Thames estuary:

Units million tonnes
Period	Imports	Exports	Total*
1964	31·5	13·0	44·5
1965	33·0	13·3	46·3
1966	35·7	15·8	51·5
1967	37·7	15·7	53·4
1968	37·4	15·4	52·8
1969	37·8	13·7	51·5
1970	38·2	14·6	52·8
1971	36·6	12·1	48·7
1972	38·5	12·9	51·4
1973	38·9	13·9	52·8
1974	35·4	11·6	47·0
* The figures include oil brought into the estuary and subsequently re-exported.

Estimates of future tonnages are not available, but some indication of future trends might be derived from the terminal capacities proposed for the Canvey Island and Cliffe refineries, which, it is understood, are as follows:

Canvey Island:
Occidental	6 million tonnes per annum
URL	4 million tonnes per annum
Cliffe:
Burmah/Total	6 million tonnes per annum

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will obtain, and publish in the Official Report, information relating to the total numbers and tonnage of oil tankers which are expected to enter the Thames Estuary to serve each of the three proposed oil refineries at Canvey Island and Cliffe, respectively, and the total number and tonnages of tankers and other vessels

			Burmah/Total, Cliffe	Occidental, Canvey Island	United Refineries Ltd., Canvey Island
Crude petroleum 75,000 deadweight tons or larger	…	…	1	1	1
Petroleum products—
30,000 deadweight tons	…	…	—	1	—
20,000 deadweight tons	…	…	—	3	—
13,000–18,000 deadweight tons		…	1	—	2
4,000 deadweight tons	…	…	5	1	—
1,500 deadweight tons	…	…	7	—	20
1,000 deadweight tons	…	…	—	3	20
500 deadweight tons	…	…	—	—	20

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will obtain, and publish in the Official Report, information regarding the total number of oil tankers and vessels carrying other hazardous cargoes that entered the Thames Estuary in each of the years 1964 to 1974 inclusive.

Most vessels carry some form of hazardous cargo, ranging from paints and matches to chemicals and explosives. The following figures relate to vessels carrying crude oil and oil products, and liquefied natural gas:

	Number of Vessels
Period	Figures provided by the Port of London Authority	Figures provided by the Port of Medway Authority
1964	3,270	1,882
1965	3,450	1,833
1966	3,495	2,145
1967	3,762	2,251
1968	3,832	2,243
1969	3,908	2,166
1970	3,548	1,973
1971	2,940	1,924
1972	2,874	2,226
1973	2,557	2,344
1974	2,403	*
* Not yet available.