Petroleum and Submarine Pipe-lines Act 1975

34 Control of construction and extension of refineries

(1) No person shall execute any works for the construction of a controlled refinery or a controlled extension of a refinery or for converting plant into a controlled refinery, unless—

(a) he is authorised in writing by the Secretary of State to do so and the works are in accordance with the terms of the authorisation ; or

(b) the works are executed in accordance with planning permission in force in pursuance of the [1971 c. 78.] Town and Country Planning Act 1971 and granted (otherwise than by a development order within the meaning of that Act) either before the passing of this Act or in consequence of an application for such permission which was made before 7th December 1974.

(2) In this Part of this Act—

• " refinery " means crude petroleum distillation plant which is designed for the treatment of crude liquid petroleum ;

• " controlled refinery " means a refinery designed to be capable of treating more than one million tons a year of the kind of crude liquid petroleum which it is designed to treat;

• " controlled extension ", in relation to a refinery, means works designed to extend, adapt or be used in conjunction with the refinery, or to extend or adapt works so used, and to increase by more than half a million tons a year the quantity of crude liquid petroleum which the refinery apart from the works is capable of treating; and

• " authorisation " means an authorisation required by the preceding subsection;

and for the purposes of this Part of this Act the quantity of crude liquid petroleum which any plant is or will be capable of treating shall be determined on the assumption that throughout every day the plant is or will be capable of being used to its maximum capacity and is or will be so used.

(3) The Secretary of State may by order provide that for any number of tons for the time being specified in the preceding subsection there shall be substituted another number specified in the order; arid the order may—

(a) without prejudice to the generality of section 46(1)(d) of this Act, contain such transitional provisions as the Secretary of State considers appropriate in consequence of any amendment of that subsection made by the order (including provision dispensing with authorisations in cases for which they would not be required apart from the order); and

(b) vary or revoke any previous order made in pursuance of this subsection.