INSTITUTE OF PETROLEUM ANNUAL DINNER Available to Purchase

The INSTITUTE OF PETROLEUM HELD their Annual Dinner at Grosvenor House on February 22nd, when over 1,300 Members and Guests were present. The Rt. Hon. Aubrey Jones, M.P., Minister of Fuel and Power, in his speech proposing the toast of The Petroleum Industry and The Institute of Petroleum had something to say about coal and warned against taking the reports of statisticians too literally. He said that he was distressed to hear, on assuming ministrial office, that coal had no future and unfortunately this was a popular opinion. The facts are, however, that even with all the aid of nuclear energy for as far ahead as we can see, we shall still need more coal than we are now getting. “But it also seems to me”, he said, “a most disastrous impression to convey. We all want a good performance from coal in the present. I put it to you, how can you expect from any industry a performance in the present unless at the same time you can offer it a future?” The Minister said that we should get away from the idea of a fixed energy requirement, of so much being contributed by coal and, therefore, so much having to be contributed by oil. “The figure of requirement” the Minister said “is not fixed. The figure of our requirement is what our energy supplies make it. Produce more coal, produce more oil, in excess of the target. The demand will be there. The lighter industries will be able to be carried forward”.