1. This Order may be cited as the Petroleum Stocks (Amendment) Order 1983 and shall come into operation on 1st January 1984.

2. In Article 3(1) of the Petroleum Stocks Order 1976(1), for the words "100,000" there shall be substituted the words "50,000".

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Article 3(1) of the Petroleum Stocks Order 1976 prescribes the circumstances in which a person is to be treated as a substantial supplier to the United Kingdom market for the purposes of section 6(2)(b) of the Energy Act 1976 which empowers the Secretary of State, in the case of any such person, to direct him to create stocks of crude liquid petroleum or petroleum products and to make arrangements enabling such stocks to be brought to and thereafter maintained at a level specified in the direction.

This Order amends Article 3(1) of the 1976 Order by providing that a person is to be treated as a substantial supplier to the United Kingdom market if he has during the period specified in Article 3(1) supplied, in the circumstances there referred to, a total quantity of petroleum products which, with the total quantity of petroleum products used in that period by him or his associated companies as finished products, exceeds 50,000 tonnes instead of 100,000 tonnes.