To ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1978 in terms of pence per gallon the fob export and cif import price of (a) crude oil and (b) petrol together with the United Kingdom ex-refinery price of petrol, excluding tax.

The figures requested are given in the following table:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy, whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the average cif import price of a gallon of crude oil and the average fob export price of petrol for each month of 1990 to date, the corresponding United Kingdom ex-refinery price of petrol, excluding tax, and the current crude price at $25 and $30 a barrel, respectively, together with the current ex-refinery price of petrol.

The figures available, which are still provisional, are given in the table.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy, what information he has on petrol prices per litre in Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Spain and the United States of America (a) in December 1989, (b) at the latest available date and (c) the percentage increase since 2 August.

The petrol prices are given in the table for the countries requested (a) in December 1989, (b) at 17 September, which is the latest available date. At (c) the percentage increase since 30 July is given, as this is the nearest date prior to 2 August for which the Department of Energy has prices. Prices are in pence per litre (including tax and duty) for premium petrol, except those for the USA which are for regular unleaded.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will seek powers to issue an order freezing petrol prices at the level which appertained prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and direct that oil companies must justify any application for a price rise with his Department.

No. Price controls below market levels stop the market working and affect availabilities. France has now abandoned the price controls it applied in August and September which restrained prices less well than the approach the United Kingdom and other countries have followed. The hon. Member may also be aware of the Director General of Fair Trading's conclusions about price control in his report published on 28 September.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy (1) how many meetings he has had with oil companies to discuss heating oil prices since 2 August;(2) how many meetings he has had with oil companies to discuss petrol prices since 2 August.

My right hon. Friend and I regularly meet representatives of the oil companies and discuss a range of issues including oil product prices.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what value and quantity of oil was bought and sold by British companies on (a) the Rotterdam market and (b) long-term contracts in each year since 1980.

Data are not available to the Department in the precise form requested. Figures are available from the major importers of crude oil into the United Kingdom showing their purchases under continuing supply agreements (i.e., long-term agreements) and other purchases. The figures, which cover a majority of crude oil imports, are shown in the table below, but are available only from 1983 onwards:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what is the refinery input cost in terms of a gallon of crude oil at $20 and $30 a barrel.

The input costs to a refinery are the cost of the crude oil plus any delivery costs to the refinery not included in that price. Delivery costs vary greatly, depending on the distance and the method of transport (ie pipeline, barges, tanker) and the going rate for transport at that time, and are not directly related to the price of the crude oil itself.The Department does not collect information on delivery costs or delivered prices of crude oil.

To ask the Secretary of State for energy whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since 1978 and for the first six months of 1990 the average ex-refinery price of petrol less tax in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy as well as the current price.

The Department has limited information on ex-refinery prices. The figures presented in the following table are for pump prices excluding tax for the countries and periods requested.