Rishi Sunak has pledged to “max out” the UK’s oil and gas reserves as he revealed a new round of intensive North Sea drilling, which experts said could be catastrophic for the climate.
Unveiling a plan to authorise more than 100 new North Sea licences on a visit to north-east Scotland, the prime minister also indicated he would approve drilling at the UK’s largest untapped reserves in the Rosebank field, which hold 500m barrels of oil.
Speaking to reporters on a visit to a Shell gas terminal north of Aberdeen, Sunak insisted the plan was compatible with net zero commitments given the anticipated part-reliance on fossil fuels for years to come, saying it was more carbon-intensive to ship oil and gas from other countries.
But experts said this ignored the fact that much of the UK’s imported gas comes by pipeline and tends to be produced more cleanly than its British equivalent. Environmental groups said Sunak’s plan would “send a wrecking ball” through climate commitments.
Tory and Labour MPs said Sunak’s “economically illiterate” announcement was “driving a coach and horses” through previous promises, and warned the prime minister he was “on the wrong side of history” and that modern voters wanted leaders who “protect, and not threaten, our environment”.
Kicking off a week of announcements intended to highlight the distance between the Tory stance and Labour’s pledge to bar any new North Sea projects, Sunak criticised the latter’s policy as “bad for energy security, bad for the British economy [and] actually bad for the environment”.
He said: “My view is we should max out the opportunities that we have here in the North Sea, because that’s good for our energy security.
“It’s good for jobs, particularly here in Scotland, but it’s also good for the climate because the alternative is shipping energy here from halfway around the world with three or four times the carbon emissions. So any which way you look at it, the right thing to do is to invest into back our North Sea, and that’s what we’re doing.”
While the new round of licences has been in progress for many weeks, Sunak’s visit highlight the shift towards greater scepticism over green policies since the Conservatives narrowly won the Uxbridge byelection, thanks in part to concern about London’s soon-to-be-expanded ultra-low emission zone.
The new round of licences will permit drilling closer to existing projects than previously allowed, something Sunak’s press secretary said was intended to maximise the amount that could be extracted.
While Sunak has insisted he remains committed to the UK’s target to reach net zero by 2050 and other green targets, his new approach has prompted concern among some Tory MPs, who worry the party could suffer among young voters and those tempted by the Liberal Democrats.
Chris Skidmore, the Conservative MP who led a review for the government into net zero, was fiercely critical of the North Sea plans, calling it “the wrong decision at precisely the wrong time”.
He said: “It is on the wrong side of a future economy that will be founded on renewable and clean industries, and not fossil fuels.
“It is on the wrong side of modern voters who will vote with their feet at the next general election for parties that protect, and not threaten, our environment. And it is on the wrong side of history, that will not look favourably on the decision taken today.”
Green groups were even more scathing. Oxfam’s climate policy adviser, Lyndsay Walsh, said: “Extracting more fossil fuels from the North Sea will send a wrecking ball through the UK’s climate commitments at a time when we should be investing in a just transition to a low-carbon economy and our own abundant renewables.”
Mike Childs, the head of policy for Friends of the Earth, said: “Climate change is already battering the planet with unprecedented wildfires and heatwaves across the globe. Granting hundreds of new oil and gas licences will simply pour more fuel on the flames, while doing nothing for energy security as these fossil fuels will be sold on international markets and not reserved for UK use.”
Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow climate secretary, said the proposals were “economic illiteracy” which would “do nothing for our energy security and drive a coach and horses through our climate commitments”.
No 10 insists that expanded UK production of oil and gas will help keep bills lower and reduced emissions from not having to ship supplies from overseas will help with net zero targets.
Speaking at the Shell terminal, Sunak said data published on Monday showed that imported liquid natural gas “typically has carbon emissions that are three if not four times higher than the energy that we can get from here at home”.
“We’re still going to need oil and gas in 2050, a quarter of our energy needs, and therefore the question is, where would you rather get that from?” he said.
“Would you rather get it from here at home? Or would you rather ship it here from halfway around the world being reliant on dictators, or coming with three or four times the carbon emissions?”
The data published on Monday by the North Sea Transition Authority, a government advisory body, actually referred to the carbon intensity of producing, transporting and regasifying liquid natural gas from overseas compared with the production of natural gas in the UK, not to their overall carbon emissions. Critics later pointed out that production costs make up only a small portion of the climate impacts of using gas, and that the differences in emissions between domestic natural gas and imported LNG are significantly reduced once burning is included in calculations.
Tessa Khan, founder and director of the green campaign group Uplift, said it was highly questionable whether domestic production was better for the environment than imports.
“The UK is in the bottom half of the global table in terms of how clean its oil and production is,” she said. “The government often points to the most carbon-intensive form of imports, but the truth is that the main source of our gas imports is by pipeline and is much cleaner than UK-produced gas.”
• This article was amended on 1 August 2023 to clarify the difference between the comparisons of imported LNG and domestically produced natural gas given by Rishi Sunak, and those provided in the research itself. A general response from critics was added. Also, an illustration of carbon capture was removed as the process was not mentioned in the article.
