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million for consolidation of fishing enterprises, a fisheries loan of less than $2 million for promoting efficiency in the industry, and about $623,000 for retraining fishermen in new occupations. During FY71, $645,000 was appropriated to compensate fishermen for losses arising from the North Sea herring restrictions established by the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Convention in May 1970. A comparable amount has been appropriated for FY72.

Two departments of the government, the Royal Board of Fisheries and the State Agricultural Marketing Board, oversee the activities of the fisheries. The Royal Board reviews the condition of marine and fresh water fisheries, promotes improved fishing methods, educates and trains fishermen, conducts scientific investigations, and directs Swedish cooperation in international fishery matters. The State Agricultural Marketing Board is concerned with price regulation, promotion of foreign trade in fishery products, and stockpiling of fish products to meet certain defense requirements.

3. Fuels and power (C)

The rapid development of hydroelectric power and the rise in imports of crude oil and petroleum products have enabled Sweden to attain one of the highest per capita levels of energy consumption in the world. Together, petroleum products and hydroelectric power account for about nine-tenths of Sweden's energy requirements, with the former (steadily rising in importance) now equal to two-thirds of the total. Coal consumption has been declining both in relative and absolute terms, so that it now accounts for less than 10% of Sweden's energy needs. Electric power generation based on nuclear energy is relatively insignificant, having failed to increase as rapidly as Swedish energy planners had hoped.

a. Petroleum and natural gas

Sweden has no known resources of petroleum or natural gas. Its lack of fossil fuels has resulted in a heavy dependence on imports to meet its energy requirements. Of the total petroleum imported in 1970, crude oil accounted for 30% and refined products, the remainder. The emphasis on the latter, imported mainly from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and, increasingly, the U.S.S.R., is due to the relatively small output of Sweden's refineries. In 1969 Sweden and the U.S.S.R. entered into an agreement whereby Sweden over the succeeding 4-year period would import Soviet fuel oil worth approximately US$107.5 million in exchange for Swedish paper exports of corresponding value.

Refining capacity is relatively small, primarily because the parent companies of most of the foreign marketing subsidiaries in Sweden have chosen to build refineries in northern European countries that can support large, economically more competitive refineries. More emphasis, however, is being given to importing crude oil largely from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, at a lower cost than imports of finished products. Sweden has five conventional refineries in operation, accounting for two-fifths of the country's consumption of petroleum products, with a combined capacity of 234,500 barrels per day (b.p.d.) in 1970 (only 17% of which is Swedish owned); the following tabulation identifies the five refineries and their owners:

By the mid-1970's, Sweden's relatively capacity is to more than double, and the country may be mostly self-sufficient in refined products. Sveriges Oljekonsumenterna Riksforbund (OK), a large Swedish distributor of petroleum products, is building a 100,000 b.p.d. factory at Brofjorden, near Lysekil, as a joint venture with Texaco. AB Nynas-Petroleum is completing a refinery on the island of Hisingen. Koppartans Olje AB is to expand its Goteborg refinery to about 206,000 b.p.d. by 1973.

Almost 70% of the total production of 87,089,000 barrels of refined products in 1970 was accounted for by residual and distillate fuel oil, both of which are used for bunkering ships and for heating (virtually all new buildings are oil heated). Motor gasoline accounted for 13% of total refinery output in 1970, as shown in the following tabulation, in thousands of barrels:

The government has sponsored a program for building storage installations (especially underground)

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