Petroleum Resources of Great Britain

Abstract

The Midlands of England contain large areas of important oil lands, which, however, will not become of commercial importance for at least 5 years, becausethe ownership of the oil has become a political issue. In Great Britain, exceptin certain special areas, all minerals, except for gold and silver, belong tothe surface owner. The leasing of minerals on the large estates is a verycomplicated business, as the family solicitors have many forms and formalitiesthat must be observed. In the case of one of the large estates, the principalrevenues of which for several hundred years have been from coal leases, theaverage time between the agreement on terms for a coal lease and the signing ofthe same has been 8 years. In 1916, one coal lease on this estate had beenpending for 15 years, and was still unsigned, although the important terms hadbeen agreed upon 15 years previously. Under war conditions, and considering the extreme importance that theproduction of petroleum in England would have had, such delays could not betolerated. Most of the British landlords, relying on the almost universalopinion of their own countrymen that there were no commercial deposits ofpetroleum in Great Britain, were prepared to give all their oil rights to thegovernment, but they feared that such action might establish a precedent withrespect to coal. For years the Labor Party and extreme radicals have protestedagainst the payment of royalties to landlords on coal. The government, therefore, introduced a bill taking over all the oil rights and providing forthe payment of a small royalty to the landlords, to safeguard the principle ofcompensation in case the coal mines should ever be nationalized. The provisionof this bill, with respect to the payment of royalty to landlords, was defeatedby a vote of 44 to 35 in a night session of the House of Commons on Oct. 25,1917, when most of the members were absent, but when a group of labor membersand extreme radicals were present. AIME 065–05