Catalogue description Ministry of Technology, Petroleum Division, and Predecessors: Correspondence and Papers

This series is the main series for the Petroleum Division and includes records of preceding departments. It covers all matters relating to government intervention and legislation affecting supply and distribution of oil, petroleum and associated products. Material on research projects is also included.

The record include:

• papers advising the government on policy at home and abroad,
• participation in the proceedings of relevant international bodies,
• the promotion overseas of British oil interests in general and British oil companies in particular,
• planning and maintenance of transport and storage facilities,
• intervention in trade and marketing,
• the issuing of licences to search for petroleum in the UK (after 1934).

Much of the series is concerned with wartime controls, including defence measures, and postwar rationing. Also contained are records of a number of advisory and supervisory bodies, including the Oil Control Board.

For Cabinet minutes and papers (OC(B) and other Series) relating to committees on oil policy see CAB 77

Board of Trade, Petrol Control Department, 1916-1920

Department of Trade and Industry, 1970-1974

Mines Department, Petroleum Department, 1922-1940

Ministry of Fuel and Power, Petroleum Division, 1942-1957

Ministry of Munitions, Petroleum Department, 1919-1922

Ministry of Munitions, Petroleum Executive, 1917-1919

Ministry of Power, Petroleum Division, 1957-1969

Ministry of Technology, Petroleum Division, 1969-1970

Petroleum Department, 1940-1942

From 1973 Department of Trade and Industry