Europe has remained in the global forefront when it comes to willingly ceasing hydrocarbon exploration and extraction, fueled by a tangible political intent to make its energy mix greener and more sustainable. The Netherlands have committed to a calibrated scaling-back of the Groningen field in particular and the majority of their gas industry in general, Norway is fighting a prolonged battle to unlock its Arctic fields in the Barents Sea, yet Ireland might be the first Atlantic producer to quit both oil and gas altogether. Heretofore the Emerald Isle has had good chances of keeping its gas assets alive and in reasonably good health, from now on the odds are that future gas exploration will also go down the way of oil. Exploration on the continental shelf of the North Sea was launched at least a generation later than in other leading hydrocarbon basins of the 20 th century […]