Food Policy Jettisoned

which have sunk several hundred million pounds into the North Sea search, are obliged to offer to sell whatever they find to the Gas Council first. This has put the Council in a tremendous bargaining position, added to which it has launched a successful publicity campaign (for once outdoing the oil companies) putting the idea of cheap gas in people's minds. Also its own wells in the North Sea are side by side with the biggest well yet discovered by the Shell/Esso group and so it knows almost to the last halfpenny how much capital the oil companies have put in and what sort of return they can expect. The oil companies have been appealing for a "market price" for their finds and have even suggested that they might withdraw their labour if the price is too low.