Net zero policies in the North Sea are not simply political ‘soundbites’ but provide significant commercial benefits, the head of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has asserted, as the organisation continues to drive the UK’s energy transition and regulate emissions in the oil and gas sector.
Stuart Payne made the comments after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to lift the “burden” of net zero from the NSTA and task it with maximising oil and gas production instead.
Mr Payne said around half of the £100billion expected to be invested in the North Sea over the next few years will be in greener initiatives like carbon capture and storage and floating wind.
He told the BBC it was “not a good thing” for his organisation to be treated like a political football and that “how we talk about this industry” is important.
“The net zero opportunity for the UK is not something that is a platitude or a soundbite,” he added.
“There are real, very significant, commercial benefits for the UK from the projects around net-zero.”
Badenoch is due to speak at Offshore Europe later, and has suggested she would rename the NSTA the “North Sea Authority” to represent a shift in focus away from net zero and transition.
The NSTA has placed net zero at the core of its business strategy, working closely with government and industry to support both energy security and swift decarbonisation across the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). This approach includes robustly regulating emissions, enforcing new stewardship requirements, and launching initiatives like the UK’s first carbon storage licensing round.
The regulator’s revised strategy features clear targets: the sector aims to halve upstream emissions by 2030 – a goal seen as “well within reach based on current progress” – with a reported 34% emissions cut between 2018 and 2024 and a record low in flaring activity last year.
