asked the Secretary of State for Energy what has been the response to the eighth round of licensing for acreage on the United Kingdom continental shelf.

Applications were received from over 100 companies. Cash tenders were submitted for about half of the 15 mature oil province blocks for which they were invited. The successful tenders are likely to raise about £30 million. Two-thirds of the blocks on offer in the mature gas basin of the southern North Sea were applied for, as were a number of blocks in the new, high-risk, areas of the Forth approaches, the East Shetland platform, the West Orkney basin and the mid North sea high.