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First Minister to give Keynote Address at launch of landmark book on the history of North Sea Oil and Gas

The First Minister, Alex Salmond, will give the Keynote Address on Monday (October 24) at a launch event to mark the publication of a new book, The Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas.

This landmark publication is written in two large volumes by leading oil and gas economist Professor Alex Kemp, of the University of Aberdeen, using previously untapped British government records, and provides a new, unique, in-depth analysis of the development of UK policies towards the North Sea oil and gas industry from the early 1960s to 1993.

In the preparation of the study Professor Kemp was allowed full access to all UK government departmental records including those covered by the thirty-year rule. These include the Prime Minister’s papers, and Cabinet and Cabinet Committee papers as well as departmental records. He also acquired access to some privately held records and obtained oral testimony.

The second volume of this significant work examines key strategic decisions over the period including:

• the thinking within government on how the role of the British National Oil Corporation (BNOC) and British Gas Corporation (BGC) should be incorporated into the private sector

• the planning behind the formation of Britoil, Enterprise Oil, and the privatised British Gas

• the many changes in taxation following the major fall in oil prices in the 1980s

• the thinking behind the decision to abolish Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT) on new fields in 1993

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