And that’s before you consider the vast majority of the profits go straight into the pockets of the private companies we’ve effectively handed the reserves to. Meanwhile a single major oil price shock costs the UK economy more than the entire transition to net zero by 2050 would. The whole situation is just beyond farce at this point.
The argument that we should be exploiting North Sea oil further is a silly one at best.
There isn’t much left, it’s now much more difficult to extract than previously (making it more expensive to extract – therefore NOT reducing cost for consumers) and it locks in a dependency that means we would require a larger dependancy on global oil supplies just as such supplies become more unsustainable.
It’s such a poorly considered argument to say “drill, baby, drill” when now is economically the time to be investing in alternatives.
Hylax1 on
Honestly, I am almost pro-anything when it comes to making our energy resources more secure and less dependent on third parties – especially now with what is going on in the world, but even then this seems like a bit too wasteful
Sytafluer on
Problem is you get the equipment setup and the people trained. You decide it is too expensive so you moth ball the equipment and lay off the highly trained personnel. Then a few years later you decide hey you know what we actually do need it, so you spend money to get the equipment back up to good running condition. You then try find all those experienced people you fired a few years back, who have all found work in other more stable industries. The only way to entice them back is with bigger salaries..etc
It’s called the Yo-Yo effect.
Every-Ad-3488 on
It would definitely have been far better to import that 36 days worth of gas from Russia or the USA. For a very complicated technical reason, burning American or Russian gas does not generate so much CO2
ID3293 on
They have the potential to produce an equivalent of 6 months of UK gas consumption, but acknowledging that gas doesn’t instantly come out the ground as soon as a licence is issued makes a less sensationalist headline.
Is the North Sea a bottomless well of oil and gas? No. Does that mean we should willingly forgo extracting that which can be economically extracted, creating/sustaining jobs and providing revenue for the exchequer? Also no.
The current propaganda push to pretend we shouldn’t drill for what oil and gas there is is like trying to tell someone they shouldn’t pick up the tenner on the ground in front of them because there’s only 1. It’s completely nonsensical.
rjyung1 on
“It’s totally uneconomical therefore we will do the marker a favour and not even let them decide if its worth it.”
Why does Norway still drill then? It’s the same field
parkway_parkway on
Everyone seems to want to have it all ways round.
Firstly there’s no oil and gas left, in which case you wouldn’t need to ban anything.
Secondly it’s a huge climate threat to take all the massive amounts out so it needs to be banned.
Thirdly it’s a get rich quick scheme because it’s so profitable.
Fourthly but also a massive windfall tax on it at 78% so that it funds the state.
Fifthly were going to do a massive energy transition to renewables so we don’t need it.
Sixthly weve under built pylons so much that we have to pay wind turbine operators to switch off as they can’t get the power to the cities.
Seventhly were going to need to import a lot of LNG from the gulf.
The arguments around this are an absolute mess of contradictions.
8 Comments
And that’s before you consider the vast majority of the profits go straight into the pockets of the private companies we’ve effectively handed the reserves to. Meanwhile a single major oil price shock costs the UK economy more than the entire transition to net zero by 2050 would. The whole situation is just beyond farce at this point.
https://www.theccc.org.uk/2026/03/11/cost-of-net-zero-by-2050-less-than-a-single-fossil-fuel-price-shock-ccc/
The argument that we should be exploiting North Sea oil further is a silly one at best.
There isn’t much left, it’s now much more difficult to extract than previously (making it more expensive to extract – therefore NOT reducing cost for consumers) and it locks in a dependency that means we would require a larger dependancy on global oil supplies just as such supplies become more unsustainable.
It’s such a poorly considered argument to say “drill, baby, drill” when now is economically the time to be investing in alternatives.
Honestly, I am almost pro-anything when it comes to making our energy resources more secure and less dependent on third parties – especially now with what is going on in the world, but even then this seems like a bit too wasteful
Problem is you get the equipment setup and the people trained. You decide it is too expensive so you moth ball the equipment and lay off the highly trained personnel. Then a few years later you decide hey you know what we actually do need it, so you spend money to get the equipment back up to good running condition. You then try find all those experienced people you fired a few years back, who have all found work in other more stable industries. The only way to entice them back is with bigger salaries..etc
It’s called the Yo-Yo effect.
It would definitely have been far better to import that 36 days worth of gas from Russia or the USA. For a very complicated technical reason, burning American or Russian gas does not generate so much CO2
They have the potential to produce an equivalent of 6 months of UK gas consumption, but acknowledging that gas doesn’t instantly come out the ground as soon as a licence is issued makes a less sensationalist headline.
Is the North Sea a bottomless well of oil and gas? No. Does that mean we should willingly forgo extracting that which can be economically extracted, creating/sustaining jobs and providing revenue for the exchequer? Also no.
The current propaganda push to pretend we shouldn’t drill for what oil and gas there is is like trying to tell someone they shouldn’t pick up the tenner on the ground in front of them because there’s only 1. It’s completely nonsensical.
“It’s totally uneconomical therefore we will do the marker a favour and not even let them decide if its worth it.”
Why does Norway still drill then? It’s the same field
Everyone seems to want to have it all ways round.
Firstly there’s no oil and gas left, in which case you wouldn’t need to ban anything.
Secondly it’s a huge climate threat to take all the massive amounts out so it needs to be banned.
Thirdly it’s a get rich quick scheme because it’s so profitable.
Fourthly but also a massive windfall tax on it at 78% so that it funds the state.
Fifthly were going to do a massive energy transition to renewables so we don’t need it.
Sixthly weve under built pylons so much that we have to pay wind turbine operators to switch off as they can’t get the power to the cities.
Seventhly were going to need to import a lot of LNG from the gulf.
The arguments around this are an absolute mess of contradictions.