Ministers move to outlaw new North Sea oil and gas exploration
The government has introduced an Energy Independence Bill that would strip the North Sea Transition Authority of its power to grant new oil and gas licences, making Labour’s manifesto moratorium permanent and reversible only by a Commons majority. Existing fields could still add output from adjoining areas under new transitional certificates, which ministers say could yield about 60 million barrels and support hundreds of jobs. Rosebank and Jackdaw are unaffected.
The bill, brought forward by the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, would also formally scrap gas standing charges, as promised in the Budget, and speed up grid connections; alongside it ministers announced an energy wealth fund, seeded with £2bn of oil and gas tax revenue, to invest in renewable and low-carbon projects. Andy Burnham said the changes would “bring bills down for good, give families greater security and put Britain back in control of its energy future”. The Conservatives called the bill “dangerous” and accused ministers of being “totally oblivious to the economic and energy threats this country faces”; the SNP’s Graham Leadbitter said it was “designed to exploit Scotland’s energy” and strengthened the case for independence. The decision on Rosebank, 80 miles north-west of Shetland and thought to hold 300–500 million barrels, sits outside the bill and still awaits ministers; production at the Jackdaw gas field was approved only two weeks ago. Watch for the bill’s second reading and for whether the transitional certificates satisfy the industry in the north-east of Scotland.