Euroil: UK opposition calls for end date for exploration

The head of the UK’s main opposition party has said the country must have a “hard-edged timetable” for ceasing oil and gas exploration.

Addressing reporters in Glasgow on August 4, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the policy would need to be implemented in a way that protected North Sea jobs. The UK oil industry employs over 30,000 workers directly and a figure several times larger indirectly.

“We absolutely have to protect people’s jobs,” Starmer said. “We’ve got to try to create a timetable for [the end of exploration]. It’s got to be subject to consensus and agreement, and we have got to bring communities with us. Otherwise there’ll be a disconnect between the obligations that we’ve got to fulfil in order to deal with the climate crisis and the communities that are going to be most deeply affected.”

Starmer was seeking to distance Labour’s policy from that of the current Conservative government. Despite having announced a number of bold climate commitments ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in November, the government has said licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration acreage would continue, albeit with greater consideration being given to the environmental impact of offshore activities.

However, the opposition leader refused to say when exactly he believed that exploration should cease.

Were exploration for oil and gas to end, this would likely make it harder for the UK to realise its potential as a blue hydrogen exporter. The country has the potential to be a world leader in hydrogen energy, global energy consultancy Xodus said in a report on August 2, urging the government to “resist the temptation” to focus only on green hydrogen and embrace natural gas-derived blue hydrogen as well.

A raft of investments in blue hydrogen have already been announced in the UK, with proponents arguing that the country should harness its remaining natural gas reserves to create low-carbon energy for years to come. The government has expressed support for blue hydrogen, but those environmental groups that are on board with hydrogen are very dismissive of blue hydrogen, arguing that it allows fossil fuels to continue playing a role in energy supply. And while Whitehall included hydrogen in its 10-point climate action plan unveiled last year, it is yet to set out its position formally in a hydrogen strategy, repeatedly delaying the document’s release.

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