The UK’s North Sea regulator plans to hold the first oil and gas licensing round since 2020 this year, as the country races to secure more domestic energy supplies in the wake of the Ukraine war.
Andy Samuel, chief executive of the Oil and Gas Authority, told the Financial Times the regulator was preparing licences that include existing discoveries, which would be “pretty much ready to go” if oil and gas companies would be willing to exploit them.
Issuing new licences to drill for oil and gas in UK waters will be highly controversial; climate campaigners argue that the North Sea fossil fuel industry should be wound down and investment prioritised in clean energy technologies.
But prime minister Boris Johnson hopes fossil fuel companies will be able to increase indigenous production as he prepares to publish an updated energy strategy later this month aimed at bolstering the UK’s domestic energy sources.
The UK, along with its European allies, is racing to phase out Russian oil and gas and reduce its exposure to highly volatile international oil and gas markets, which are forcing up domestic energy bills to record highs and exacerbating a cost of living crisis.
The OGA, which on Monday is changing its name to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), has not been able to hold a licensing round since 2020, when the government undertook a review of whether its policies were compatible with climate objectives.
Ministers have since been drawing up a Climate Capital “climate compatibility checkpoint” against which they promised all future licensing rounds would be tested. The draft text for those checks was hastily rewritten last week to include clauses allowing the government to bypass environmental