A fresh license cycle for businesses looking to search for oil and gas in the North Sea has been launched by the UK. With up to 100 exploration licenses expected to be granted, about 900 areas are being made available for investigation. International climate experts disagree with the decision, arguing that fossil fuel projects should be scaled back rather than increased. According to them, no new projects can be undertaken if there is to be any possibility of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5C. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international organization for climate research, have both voiced support for this idea.
The best solution to relieve customers’ suffering from high energy prices, according to a report released earlier this year by the government’s own climate change advisors, was to cease consuming fossil fuels rather than dig for more of them. The additional exploration, according to Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, will increase energy security and promote skilled employment. Additionally, proponents of additional exploration say that it is consistent with the government’s legal obligation to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. According to them, the fossil fuel from the North Sea will take the place of imported fuel and have a less carbon impact during production and transportation. 898 blocks, or license areas, in the North Sea are being made available.
Making the most of our domestic energy resources is more crucial than ever in light of Putin’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine, according to Mr. Rees-Mogg. According to the North Sea Transition Authority, the licensing procedure will be expedited in areas of the North Sea that are close to existing infrastructure and have the potential to be developed swiftly. It claims that, while the delay between discovery and initial production has historically been close to five years, it is now getting less. The oil business and protesters alike concur that the reserves won’t be substantial enough to significantly affect the costs that UK consumers pay for energy.
Philip Evans, an energy transition campaigner with Greenpeace UK, declared that the government’s energy strategy “benefits fossil fuel firms and no one else.” “New oil and gas licenses won’t reduce energy costs for poor people this winter or any winter in the near future, nor will they offer energy security in the medium term.” Approximately 20 years ago, North Sea oil and gas production reached its peak. Since then, the UK has switched from producing more oil and gas than it requires to importing it from other nations.
The oil and gas industry’s representative organization, Offshore Energies UK, estimates that the North Sea still contains up to 15 billion barrels of oil. In a statement, it stated that there would be an environmental “benefit” and that new fields will be less polluting than their forerunners. The government’s “Climate Compatibility Checkpoint,” which “aims to ensure” that the additional exploration is in line with the UK’s climate objectives, was published before the decision to open a licensing round.
The checkpoint criteria take into consideration the international comparison of emissions from oil and gas production but exclude the carbon dioxide released during the burning of the oil and gas.
