Opening major new fields in the North Sea would make almost no difference to the UK’s reliance on gas imports, research has shown.
The Jackdaw field, one of the largest unexploited gasfields in the North Sea, would displace only 2% of the UK’s current imports of gas, which would leave the UK still almost entirely dependent on supplies from Norway and a few other sources.
The Rosebank field, also in Scottish waters but mainly containing oil, would displace only about 1% of the UK’s gas imports.
Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, the campaign group, which compiled the data from public sources, said: “New fields like Jackdaw and Rosebank would do vanishingly little to boost UK gas production. Even in the most optimistic scenario, and assuming none of its gas is exported, Jackdaw would provide just 2% of UK demand over its nine- to 12-year lifetime.”
It has already been shown, by authorities including the UK Energy Research Centre, that new drilling would not reduce oil and gas prices, or improve the UK’s energy security. It is also unlikely to produce durable jobs or major new tax revenues, as 90% of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas has already been burned, putting the industry in steep and irrecoverable decline. Companies are also demanding tax breaks to tap the new fields, which are harder to access than existing supplies.
Drilling in the North Sea is the equivalent of trying to pay off your mortgage by digging through the couch cushions. All the oil and gas out there is essentially gone and what little you can extract will be incredibly expensive and environmentally damaging.
Why do companies want to fund it’s extraction then?
They want the government to lower its taxes/fees on extraction so that more becomes just barely profitable.
Without that change, there’s only a few small places they’d be willing to drill. But if the government waives its cut suddenly they can drill somewhat more, still nothing particularly impressive though.
Of course, that means the uk gets basically no benefit, and if it’s only profitable with government generosity then it’s sure as hell not going to be profitable with a limited market (ie if we forced them to sell to the uk and actually help with the uk problems)
Tldr: they are hoping the uk are rubes they can scam.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, there. The gas companies are betting that demand for gas won’t go away any time soon. If they’re right and they have the licences to extract it, they’ll still profit, even if the profits are smaller.
it’s more of a political thing
reform need to be questioned on how much of these oil and gas profits are going to be handed back to the british people will it be a norway model (national fund saving for the future) or a thatcher model (resources simply handed to a private company to profit from and sold back to the british people at global rates)