asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he has any plans for establishing a national electricity board for Wales which will be responsible for generation and distribution.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the

United Kingdom continental shelf gas utilisation during 1979 was as follows:

	Total	Average daily rate
	(million cubic metres)	(million cubic metres)	(million cubic metres)
Flared	6,600	18	639
Reinjected	1,030	3	100
Used by producers	900	2·5	87
Disposals to BGC	38,200	105	3,690

These figures do not include deliveries to the petroleum industry either for its own energy uses or for marketing as petroleum products—a daily average of about 3 million cubic metres; they do include the United Kingdom share of Frigg. The volume of gas flared in 1979 was equal to about 14 per cent. of the volume of gas supplied by BGC—including Norwegian share of Frigg and other imports. The following table gives United Kingdom continental shelf gas flaring rates since oil production began in 1975. It can be seen that in recent months the flaring rate has decreased in absolute terms and relative to United Kingdom continental shelf oil production. Although month by month flaring figures are subject to substantial fluctuations, I hope that this improvement will be maintained as more operating companies bring gas conservation systems into reliable operation.hon. Member for Skipton (Mr. Watson) on 11 February.—[Vol 978,