Catalogue description Ministry of Fuel and Power, Petroleum Division, and Predecessors: Miscellaneous Oil Control Board Papers

The Oil Control Board was set up by the Prime Minister in November 1939, as a sub-committee of the War Cabinet, to 'take the necessary action to conserve and maintain adequate supplies of petroleum products, including the provision of tanker tonnage' and to 'decide, subject to the right of final appeal by any Department to the War Cabinet, priority claims for oil products and tanker tonnage'.

The Board consisted predominantly of civilians, with some service officers, sitting under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Mines until May 1940 and then of the Secretary for Petroleum. The intention of creating a strong executive to take the initiative in policy-making did not work; the Board became largely an adjudicating and supervisory body, which delegated most of its work to sub-committees of departmental specialists.

The governmental Tanker Tonnage Committee was formed in the early months of the war to co-ordinate the work of the Ministry of Shipping with the Petroleum Department and the Admiralty. The terms of reference of this committee, which sat under the Civil Lord of the Admiralty, were to review the shipping implications of oil import programmes, and factors affecting the supply of tankers.