Catalogue description Ministry of Power and successors: Petroleum Division and successors: Registered Files (PET Series)

Registered files of the PET series, which appears to have been opened in 1965 or 1966 to serve the whole of the Petroleum Division. This series succeeded the P, PD (which related to the Division's overseas responsibilities) and PE (the Division's domestic work) series.

This series contains registered files of the Petroleum Division of the Ministry of Power and its successors, covering the domestic and international work of the division. Subjects covered include pipeline development and oil storage, the development of the Sullom Voe oil terminal in the Shetland Isles and terminals in other oil and gas fields, oil imports and supplies, oil pollution, production licensing, gas gathering pipelines, offshore platforms, offshore safety, legislation, contingency planning, depletion, the delimitation of the Continental Shelf, labour relations, overseas interests of British oil companies, the pricing of North Sea oil and gas, royalties, taxation, papers relating to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Oil Committee, the 1967 and 1973 Middle East oil crises, the British National Oil Corporation and the oil embargo against Rhodesia.

Also included in this series are files relating to the collapse of the 'Sea Gem' drilling platform on 27 December 1965, the official investigation which followed, and the preparation of subsequent safety legislation in connection with similar disasters (see also POWE 46).

Department of Industry, 1974-1983

Department of Trade and Industry, 1970-1974

Department of Trade and Industry, 1983-2007

Ministry of Power, Petroleum Division, 1957-1969

Ministry of Technology, Petroleum Division, 1969-1970

From 1993 Department of Trade and Industry