Catalogue description Records of the Petroleum Division

In April 1916 a Petrol Control Committee was set up in the Board of Trade. In June 1917 this was absorbed into the Petrol Control Department (formed 1916) which was responsible for controlling the consumption of petrol for civil and industrial purposes, with the temporary aid of a Petroleum Pool Board. The Department was dissolved at the end of 1920.

In 1917, a Petroleum Executive was set up under the Ministry of Munitions to deal with the importation and supply of petroleum to munitions firms. In November 1919 this was renamed the Petroleum Department, which was then absorbed into the Board of Trade in October 1922. Responsibilities exercised by the Ministry of Munitions in respect of prospecting for petroleum inside the United Kingdom passed to the Mines Department in March 1921. Other functions relating to the supply and distribution of petroleum remained with the Board of Trade; these passed to the Mines Department in 1928. Henceforth these duties were performed by a Petroleum Department within the Mines Department, which was transferred from the Board in February 1929. In 1929 the Petroleum Department too was transferred to the Mines Department.

The Department's responsibilities after 1929 were very wide. It co-ordinated action and information on the subject of petroleum at home and abroad and advised other government departments on technical, commercial and political questions affecting petroleum. In this way it became involved with international affairs and participated in the proceedings of international bodies concerned with petroleum policy and trade agreements. One prominent aspect of the Department's work was the promotion of British oil companies in world trade and in supporting various development programmes of British oil interests, authorising appropriate foreign currency expenditure, in conjunction with the Treasury's approval. Powers relating to the search for petroleum at home were extended by the Petroleum (Production) Act 1934, which vested in the Crown property in petroleum and natural gas in Great Britain. Responsibility for ensuring production was vested in the Production Division.

In May 1940, the Petroleum Department of the Mines Department was separated from its parent body, with its own minister who was entitled Secretary for Petroleum. In June 1942 these duties passed to the Ministry of Fuel and Power, into which the Department was absorbed (becoming the Petroeum Division).

After 1942 the Petroleum Division dealt with all matters at government level relating to the supply and distribution of petroleum, except for certain controls over petroleum and petroleum products which had passed to the Ministry of Supply in September 1939 under the Essential Commodities Reserves Act 1938. Broad questions of policy remained in the hands of the Oil Control Board, a War Cabinet body, set up in November 1939, which was chaired initially by the Secretary for Petroleum, subsequently by the Minister of Fuel and Power. This concerned itself with general requirements, conservation of stocks, allocation of priorities and worldwide stocks. Much of the Board's work was delegated to sub-committees of departmental specialists. During the war, the Petroleum Division was responsible for oil defence measures and also administered petrol rationing until this was abolished in 1950, save for a brief period after the Suez crisis of 1956. The Petroleum Warfare Department, which had been created in 1940, was attached to it; this was responsible for the development of new war weapons and devices concerning petroleum. Its most renowned achievement was the planning and installation of a number of pipelines across the Channel to supply the invading armies of 1944: PLUTO (Pipeline Underwater Transport of Oil).

After the War, the Petroleum Division continued to generally advise the government on matters of policy concerning petroleum at home and abroad, dealt with balance of payments questions, furthered British interests in relation to trade agreements and participated in the proceedings of oil committees of a variety of international bodies. Like its predecessors, it issued licences under the Petroleum (Production) Act 1934 to search for petroleum at home and promoted the world-wide trade of British oil companies both in the production of crude oil and the refining and distribution of petroleum products. In the 1960s, the Division's functions included the administration of the Pipe-Lines Act 1962 and the Continental Shelf Act 1964.

By 1968, the Division comprised five branches each under an Assistant Secretary, with the Division as a whole headed by an Under-Secretary. One of the five branches co-ordinated the Ministry's work on natural gas under the general direction of a Deputy Secretary and another was responsible also for the co-ordination of the Ministry's work on international energy and steel matters' (formerly co-ordinated in the General Division) and reported to the Under-Secretary, General Division on this work. A sixth Assistant Secretary acted as Counsellor (Petroleum) in Washington.

In 1969, the Ministry of Fuel and Power was abolished, and the Petroleum Division was absorbed into the Ministry of Technology. In October 1970 all responsibility was transferred to the Department of Trade and Industry.