Just as most of the public attention of the past weeks was turned to the US-China trade war and the possibility of an OPEC+ deal extension, the European nation of Ireland was going through a period of reassessing its energy priorities. Perhaps surprisingly for many, oil was at the epicenter of the deliberation – namely, the pressure from environmentalists and green-leaning parties to ban all offshore oil production. Having several tricks to stop the legislation on the issue, by October 2019 it became clear that the offshore oil ban is unavoidable, as attested by Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s pledge not to award any further licenses at the UN Climate Action Summit this Autumn. But why would anyone ban offshore oil production? First and foremost, Ireland could ban offshore oil because it (as of today) produces no oil whatsoever and is 100 percent dependent on oil imports. Ireland has only […]