The UK government has dismissed calls from Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) to ramp up domestic North Sea oil and gas production, despite warnings that a failure to do so will heighten the nation’s reliance on imports amidst global instability.
OEUK had cautioned that the UK “urgently” requires a greater supply of homegrown energy to protect consumers from “global volatility and higher emissions.” This warning emerged as conflict in the Middle East intensified, triggering significant oil and gas supply shocks and leading to a more than doubling of UK gas prices within a month.
However, the government rebuffed the industry’s appeal for increased support to slow the decline of North Sea energy provision. A spokesperson stated: “Issuing new licences to explore new fields cannot give us energy security and will not take a penny off bills. Regardless of where it comes from, oil and gas is sold on international markets, which set the price for British billpayers – making us a price taker. The only way to truly protect ourselves from these price spikes is to get off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets.”
According to OEUK’s latest annual report, the ongoing decline of the North Sea basin is projected to significantly increase the UK’s dependence on gas imports, sourced from countries such as the US and Qatar. This reliance is expected to rise sharply from approximately 14% last year to over a quarter of its gas supply by 2030, potentially reaching almost half by 2035. Without sustained investment, OEUK’s analysis suggests this figure could even reach 70% of total oil and gas demand by 2030.
The industry group’s report also highlighted that the UK will continue to utilise oil and gas for several decades to come. Sourcing these hydrocarbons from the North Sea would yield a lower emissions footprint compared to importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) via super-chilled tankers from overseas.
OEUK research indicates that oil and gas currently satisfy approximately 75% of the UK’s energy requirements. Even under the nation’s net-zero plans, hydrocarbons are anticipated to meet roughly a fifth of the UK’s primary energy demand in 2050.
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Enrique Cornejo, OEUK’s Energy Policy Director, emphasised a pathway that meets climate targets through responsible use of domestic resources. “What we’re setting out here is that there is a pathway to meet climate targets that makes a responsible use of our homegrown resources, and that also ensures that we do not offshore those emissions to other countries,” Cornejo explained.
He added: “Because of how accounting of carbon emissions works for every country, it would be very easy for us to just say we will not produce our energy in the UK, or we will not produce our steel in the UK, and we’re just pushing that problem elsewhere.”
Scotland’s Climate Action and Energy Secretary Gillian Martin supported the North Sea sector’s contribution but emphasised a “just transition” to new opportunities for the workforce, calling for a “parallel track approach” to energy transition that manages North Sea production alongside increasing renewables deployment.
