Publications

Today the oil and gas regulator, the North Sea Transition Authority, has announced the offer of 31 oil and gas licences under the 33rd oil and gas licensing round. The round was opened in October 2022 under Liz Truss’s government as part of its ‘dash for gas’. New licences add virtually nothing to the UK’s energy supply and do nothing to lower energy bills.

The UK’s transition away from oil and gas production is already well underway. But for all the talk of a ‘just transition’, the UK lacks a coherent plan for making sure that the workers and communities dependent on the oil and gas sector benefit from the North Sea’s shift to clean energy. This report looks at the current failed plan and shows what is needed to kick-start a fair transition.

New oil and gas licensing is pitched as being key to UK energy independence, but is this just a pipedream? After nearly five decades of drilling, North Sea reserves are in steep decline and new discoveries are unlikely. This research brief, which looks at recent licensing rounds and official projections, shows why new oil and gas licensing won’t deliver energy security.

According to the government, its new legislation to increase oil and gas licensing in the North Sea will ‘boost energy security’. Others dispute this, including the oil and gas regulator, which has called it ‘unnecessary’. This brief outlines what the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill does and, crucially, what it won’t do for UK energy independence, jobs and tax revenue.