Gas Act 1965

29 Modification of section 52 of principal Act.

(1) Section 52 of the principal Act (which prohibits any new piped supply of gas except with the consent of the Area Board and in accordance with such conditions as may be attached to that consent) shall have effect subject to the following provisions of this section.

(2) An Area Board shall give their consent under that section to the supply of gas if the supply is for such purposes as are mentioned in the next following subsection.

(3) The said purposes are industrial purposes which do not consist of or include the use as a fuel of the gas which it is proposed to supply except in so far as the gas is required to provide heat or other energy required—

(a) for a process in which the gas is used otherwise than as a fuel; or

(b) where such a process is one of a series, for any further process in the same series, not being a process in which a bulk product is converted into manufactured articles ;

and in determining whether any industrial purposes are as mentioned in this subsection the use of any gas derived, otherwise than as a by-product, from the gas which it is proposed to supply shall be treated as the use of that gas.

(4) If any question arises whether the purposes for which gas is to be supplied are purposes mentioned in the last foregoing subsection, it shall be determined by the Minister.

(5) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of the said section 52, an Area Board shall not attach any conditions to their consent to a supply of gas for purposes so mentioned, except conditions requiring the supplier of the gas to provide, periodically or on request by the Board, information with respect to the type of gas supplied, the amount supplied and the use of the gas supplied; and any person aggrieved by any such condition may refer it to the Minister, who may confirm, vary or revoke it or impose instead some other condition which the Area Board could have imposed under this subsection.

(6) The said section 52 shall not apply to natural gas gotten in Great Britain in pursuance of a licence under the [1934 c. 36.] Petroleum (Production) Act 1934.