asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list, for each year since 1970, the total direct capital investment in North Sea oil exploration and exploitation provided by (a) the private sector and (b) the public sector.

Annual gross domestic fixed capital formation by the United Kingdom oil and natural gas exploration and production industry since 1970 is published in National Income and Expenditure 1966–76 and in the Monthly Digest of Statistics and is as follows:

	£ million
1970	40
1971	68
1972	120
1973	183
1974	600
1975	1,621
1976	2,183
1977	2,009

These figures exclude expenditure upon exploration, other than appraisal conducted on or in the vicinity of fields in production or under development, which is treated as current expenditure in the national accounts. Details of such exploration expenditure have been collected by my Department only from 1976, in which year it amounted to £300 million and in 1977 it was £370 million. Total expenditure upon exploration in prior years is estimated to have been some £600 million.