Part III

Petroleum Licences

Amendment of enabling powers etc.
18
1
The Petroleum (Production) Act 1934 (in this Act referred to as “the 1934 Act”) shall have effect, and be deemed always to have had effect, as if in subsection (2) of section 1 (vesting of property in petroleum) were renumbered as subsection (4) of that section and for subsection (1) of that section there were substituted the following subsections—
1
The property in petroleum to which subsection (2) of this section applies at the commencement of this Act, so far as it is not already so vested, is hereby vested in His Majesty ; and His Majesty shall at any time have the exclusive right of searching and boring for and getting petroleum to which that subsection applies at that time.
2
Subject to subsection (3) of this section, this section applies at any time to petroleum which at that time exists in its natural condition in strata in Great Britain or beneath the territorial waters of the United Kingdom adjacent to Great Britain ; and it so applies notwithstanding that the land in which any such petroleum so exists belongs to His Majesty or the Duchy of Cornwall, belongs to a Government department or is held in trust for His Majesty for the purposes of a government department.
3
Subsection (2) of this section does not apply to petroleum which at the commencement of this Act may be lawfully gotten under a licence in force under the Petroleum (Production) Act 1918, being a licence specified in the Schedule to this Act, so long as that licence remains in force.
2
The 1934 Act shall also have effect, and be deemed always to have had effect, as if in subsection (1) of section 2 (power to grant licences) after the word “shall” there were inserted the words “ at any time ” and at the end of that subsection there were added the words “ to which subsection (2) of section 1 of this Act applies at that time ”.
The text of ss. 8(3), 18, 24, 25(1)–(3)(5), 26(1)(2), 30(2), 31, 37 is in the form in which it was originally enacted: it was not reproduced in Statutes in Force and does not reflect any amendments or repeals which may have been made prior to 1.2.1991.
1934 c. 36.