Stories

Tue, 24 Mar 2026

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 UK must back North Sea oil and gas drilling, says trade body

The group says the country "urgently" needs to produce its own oil and gas to secure supplies.

* Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) has warned that the UK needs to produce its own oil and gas urgently due to rising global instability and a reliance on imports.
* The Labour government's ban on new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea has been criticized by OEUK, which claims that without more domestic production, the country will be vulnerable to price shocks.
* Oil and gas prices have spiked since the US-Israel war with Iran began and Tehran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global crude supplies.
* OEUK is calling on the government to review its approach to offshore oil and gas exploration licenses and scrap the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) in 2026.
* The industry group claims that scrapping the EPL would unlock £50bn of new investment in UK oil and gas and impose a 35% tax when oil and gas prices breach a certain level.
* The Conservative Party is set to call for an end to the EPL and the ban on new oil and gas licenses during its Opposition Day debate in parliament.
* Researchers at the University of Oxford have disputed claims that extracting more of the UK's own oil and gas could significantly lower energy bills, finding that the cost savings would be smaller than those expected from accelerating the shift to renewable energy.