4 hours ago
6
Two of Britain’s leading green industrialists have called on the government to abandon plans to ban new North Sea oil and gas projects.
Dale Vince, a green entrepreneur and a Labour party donor, has urged the government to support the declining oil basin as the UK reduces its reliance on fossil fuels to “optimise” its remaining resources.
The founder of Ecotricity spoke out against the government’s plan to scrap new licences for oil and gas projects a week after Greg Jackson, the founder of Octopus Energy and a Cabinet Office adviser, backed calls to restart North Sea drilling.
Vince said the government should scrap the windfall tax on the North Sea and offer subsidies to oil companies that guarantee a minimum price for the barrels of oil and gas they produce.
“Our North Sea is in decline, let’s protect it during the transition and optimise our use of the resources that are left,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “We should scrap the windfall tax and protect the industry and its workers – we need to avoid the destruction of the industry or we will see a repeat of what happened to our coalminers.”
Jackson said last week that relying on North Sea oil and gas would have a smaller climate impact than relying on costly imports from the US and the Middle East, which release more emissions during production and transportation than homegrown fossil fuels.
“When we’re shipping LNG, liquefied natural gas, around the world, it is a lot dirtier than using locally produced gas,” Jackson told the Telegraph. “British gas producers won’t be selling it any cheaper than the global market. But it is cleaner and it reduces the backlash against climate policy. I’ve got no problem with it.”
The green industry leaders have spoken out against the government’s North Sea stance amid growing pressure from opposition parties to back the industry, which supports about 130,000 jobs and contributed more than £6bn in tax receipts to the government in the last financial year and £9bn the year before.
The Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said the party would aim to “maximise extraction” of oil and gas in the North Sea if it won the next election. Reform UK has also promised to reverse Labour’s ban as a “day one” priority if it comes to power.
The Guardian reported over the summer that senior government advisers had told North Sea investors that new drilling could still move ahead despite the election promise to ban it, provided the projects were close to existing pipeline infrastructure and did not extend into “greenfield” areas.
after newsletter promotion
“Myself and a number of colleagues have been told that the government is moving towards the idea of allowing new licences,” one energy investor said.
The source said that while Treasury officials were open to considering future North Sea oil and gas projects, the plans were unlikely to be well received by Ed Miliband, the secretary of state of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Miliband reportedly refused to leave his post in Keir Starmer’s reshuffle last week. The ITV political editor, Robert Peston, who first reported the claims, said it was “one part of the reshuffle that didn’t quite go Starmer’s way”.
The government was approached for comment.
