The USA and Saudi Arabia have high GDP per head in part because they are the world’s two largest producers of oil and gas. The UK has inflicted harm on itself by running down its North Sea oil and gas fields prematurely, and refusing to explore and produce onshore gas in significant quantities. The main political parties have conspired against the oil and gas industry in the name of net zero. They have failed to grasp that keeping our own gas in the ground means we simply import a lot more in the form of LNG which generates a lot more CO 2 in its production than piped gas from local sources.
If we are serious about growth we need a major reversal of policy. President Trump saved the West worse outcomes by insisting on greatly increasing US output of gas and oil when he was in office. As a result the US could sell plenty more gas into Europe when the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to the cancellation of much Russia supply. President Biden said he would take net zero seriously, but went on adding to the drilling and production licences so US output continued to rise, though at a slower pace. It is part of the reason the US is richer than we are, and helpful to the US now they are pursuing an active policy of onshoring more industrial production.
The quickest way to boost the UK economy is to get rid of the windfall taxes on oil and gas, leaving in place the double corporation tax on profits, grant many more exploration licences and speed up production licences for the established fields. Where there are discovered reserves but no plans to produce government should discuss with the industry what it would take to get it into production.
July 28, 2024
Why leave in place the double corporation tax on profits in oil and gas?
July 28, 2024
There’s no chance of any reversal of the ruinous policy whilst the uniparty is in power. Only Reform are against net zero.
Milipede is he’ll bent on the destruction of the UK because he’s a dyed in the wool communist.
Starmergeddon is only following UN, WEF guidance as he admits he prefers them to parliament.
Again we are in the position where wind is only producing 3% of requirements and regardless of what the government believes, they won’t work without wind.
July 28, 2024
World wide Solar and Wind provide about 3% of energy even in the UK less than 10% of human used energy. This even after idiotically exporting many high energy industries and jobs.
July 28, 2024
@Lifelogic – you have to ask of the 650 individuals(MPs) forcing this regime of malicious punishment on the Country and its people have done what they preach, given up fossil fuels for their homes and transport needs. Then even if any of them have moved in that direction how many of them funded it themselves or how many put it down to a taxpayer funded expense?
July 28, 2024
Sunak pledged to frack to get elected as Tory leader. He scrapped it and taxed all oil and gas a bit more! He appeared to me to be a liar and backstabber.
UK taxpayer funding both sides of Russia Ukraine war! Apparently war has no impact on climate but everything else does!
July 28, 2024
And the solar panels won’t work without sun (or at the very least, clear skies).
July 28, 2024
Indeed. Get fracking and coal mining too, when it is cost effective. Burning coal is far preferable to burning imported forests at Drax. Cheap reliable on demand energy is vital for the economy. Also stop all renewable subsidies and market rigging, if so called renewables make economic sense without subsidy while paying for their own back up costs then fine. They often do not.
Also ditch soft “loans” for the very many virtually worthless degrees – circa 75% surely are. Relax planning, cut the size of the state in half, ditch net zero, have a bonfire of red tape, cut and simplify taxes, get more people to leave school at 15 or 16 and train in practical skills building trades, engineering, mechanics, programming…
But we have Starmer, Ed Miliband and Patrick Vallance who all seem to be hooked on the total insanity of net zero. Spending £trillions on a war against CO2 when we live in a relative dearth of CO2 plant food and a bit more is a net good. The world has seen ice ages with CO2 at over 10 times current levels!
July 29, 2024
No need oil, gas and coal can be imported from Russia as it is now, albeit oil and gas via India. More Inter- connectors from hostile EU averaging 20% of UK electric to force lock step and a vassal state. Sunak and Starmer happy to betray our nation.
Reform Party is the only alternative choice who stands up for Britain.
July 28, 2024
More crucially, why do US politicians, law enforcers and the population at large accept/support oil and gas extraction whereas the UK appears to vilify the industry? Why is the UK so convinced by the net zero argument?
July 28, 2024
I can’t think why they are so convinced although I expect it is a result of our “education” system.
But no worries …I have the solution!
We need to go for a 60% of the country forest coverage.
Like Bhutan which has apparently actually achieved NZ.
1.3 million treehouses?
July 28, 2024
Sounds like the way to go. In addition we’d need to reduce the UK population to 5 million to get down to Bhutan’s population density and have space for the trees…
July 28, 2024
Ah…hadn’t thought of that! 😂
Gosh! There would have to be a huge cull…..
July 28, 2024
The UK Pete? Politicians you mean. Left -leaning pretend politicians.
July 29, 2024
Plus all those who voted Lib Dem & Green (& Labour to a degree). Voters supported parties quoting net zero as gospel.
July 28, 2024
Why give subsidies to oil and gas companies to prospect?
Giving with one hand and taking with the other.
July 28, 2024
Dream on (drill baby drill.)
We are now a communist utopia thanks to Tory mass immigration.
July 28, 2024
Good morning SJR
It seems we’ve been debated this and other similar regressive issues to the point of exhaustion but thanks for raising it anyway.
I believe it is vital that those who vote to endorse such realignment (some vulgarians term it ‘The Great Reset’) politics are harmed financially and socially by it. Only then will they wake up before it’s too late. Like a child placing their hand into a fire and getting burned, they’ll soon learn not to repeat such self-harm.
The subtle use of public debt to maintain the political status quo to therefore carry out and conceal the true cost of this realignment is surely one of the most egregious political acts of fiscal and democratic vandalism we have seen for many a decade.
And on from the treacherous woke Tories who sold their soul to the progressive devil to appease the fascist Left we now have the true disciples of woke authoritarianism who will not waste this final opportunity delivered to them on a plate by Sunak to impose policies that make reform in the future almost impossible and in many cases irreversible. The Tories still don’t realise the damage their appeasement has caused. They have destroyed the one thing they purport to love, The United Kingdom
I note Charles will be a significant beneficiary of the wind farm revolution. No wonder he’s a NZ advocate. Carney and the other woke vultures are no doubt also hovering around for contracts from the odious Miliband
Finally Reeves’s ‘fiscal blacklhole’ is total bollocks, a lie and an invention. An OBR-Treasury concoction. These Socialist idiots must think most have come over on the bloody bananananana boat
Have a nice Sunday, enjoy the sun.
July 29, 2024
The money Charles gets should be deducted from the Royal grant. Make Charles pay for his own eco lunacy not at the expense of the public purse. I also note he travelled unnecessarily several times from Scotland to London in his helicopter to meet ambassadors for his causes, hardly leading by example! We are having cars taken away while he still plays about in helicopter rides!
July 28, 2024
Good Morning,
This sensible course of action is total fantasy while Labour and Tories believe CO2 is the main cause of climate change. What is needed is a challenge to that dogma based on strong, real evidence from real scientists. Until that happens we’ll continue to follow the ‘political science’ of PPE, Geography and Theatre Studies graduates.
We had the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ for a reason.
July 28, 2024
John, Why is common sense so rare in Politics these days? Is it because Politicians are trained in politics and just live politics. In my experience nothing constructive is ever achieved from Politics now.
July 28, 2024
When it comes to energy policy for the UK. ‘Just stop oil’ are controlling it.
July 28, 2024
It does seem crazy that we are sitting on our own reserves of oil, gas and coal, but refuse to use them and then import them, at extra cost from foreign competitors. If the new false religion had any truth in it in terms of how much we’re putting our selves at risk of burning up, that risk would still be there no matter where our fossil fuels were produced.
The world has gone crazy.
July 28, 2024
Not the world Cliff, weirdo UK politicians.
July 28, 2024
All very true. But it is the measure of the stupidity of all the main political parties that they are doing the opposite of what is sensible and right for the UK economy.
July 28, 2024
“If we are serious about growth we need a major reversal of policy.”
Well all the Labour policies (which continue the mad Tory ones but even worse) – almost all Labour policies are hugely anti-growth other than relaxing planning. Tax increases, more nationalisation, net zero, pushing electric vehicles and heat pumps with subsidies, more employment laws, abolition (export) of Non Doms, VAT on school fees, ever more government, wars on landlords…
July 28, 2024
In a less dreamlike mode, not only would I ramp up oil , and gas production for our sole domestic use at sensible prices, but I would start serious production in the Falklands where reserves are said to be far greater than we ever had and still have. You might have to change the content of the FCO to achieve it. Regular nuclear submarine appearances at Stanley should curb any Argy Bargey. I ask myself, am I too thatcherite and victorian in my dottage, but realise that democracy connot thrive on dogma alone, nor can its adherents.
July 28, 2024
If we had to recover the Falklands again do we have the military capacity to do so? I suspect not. Let us hope Trump wins at least he would be on out side should this happen.
Would our absurd two sitting duck aircraft carriers, without suitable aircraft (HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth one of which seems to be only used for spares) even be capable of sailing that far without breaking down.
July 28, 2024
LL
The trick is not to lose them in the first place. The known presence of a nuclear attack submarine should be enough to keep the argy navy tied up. The real danger is always going to be our own politicians.
The moderator denied you a laugh this morning on how to deal with our nett zero high priest, but sense of humour has always been thin on the ground in that area. Yet it seems okay to call him a commy. Odd world we are expected to live in within modern day UK.
July 28, 2024
Happily, the Falkland Islands are autonomous and beyond the control of Milipede and his eco lunatics. Rockhopper exploration think they are close to a deal with the FI government and hope to start drilling in the next couple of years. There are billions of barrels down there.
July 28, 2024
It looks to me as if the only political party in this country which agrees with you is Reform.
July 28, 2024
Indeed and they have 5 MPs and almost zero power.
July 28, 2024
LL
Power is not the point at the moment. A voice and growing influence is. When people realise that they are the only game in town that responds to their’s and the country’s needs, traction will follow.
July 28, 2024
The positive relationship between energy and economic growth is clear: income and energy consumption are tightly correlated on every continent and across every time period for which data exists. Nowhere in the world is there a wealthy country that consumes only a little energy, nor a poor country that consumes a lot.
https://energyforgrowth.org/article/how-does-energy-impact-economic-growth-an-overview-of-the-evidence/
Yet government since Blair onwards have have fallen for the climate alarmist lunacy. Even Thatcher fell for it to a degree. Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Boris, May, Sunak, Ed Miliband and Starmer are mad zealots for this deluded, destructive and vastly exaggerated unscientific religion. The war on net beneficial plant, tree, seaweed and crop food.
July 28, 2024
Blair who also gave us all these expensive & pointless degrees.
https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › education-49841620
The symbolic target of 50% at university reached – BBC News
The target of 50% going into higher education was set in September 1999 in a conference speech by Tony Blair, two years after coming into office.
I am not against education or degrees just duff education, propaganda and worthless/pointless degrees that can cost £50K to £150K plus three to six years of no wages. Alas most circa 75% are. Look at all the dire and deluded PPE Oxon graduates in politics!
July 28, 2024
We might surely be better off is our zealot Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (an oxymoron) had read physics and electrical engineering rather than PPE Oxon. See the dire list of politicians with PPE degrees Hancock, Sunak, Cameron, Hunt, Balls, Cooper, Eagles, Hammond, Hague, Benn, Foot… Only about five seem to have survived with their brains relatively intact. Or perhaps the course draws such deluded would be politician types to it.
July 28, 2024
LL :
In addition, the greater percentage of the population involved in producing the energy a country needs the poorer the country. So all the additional “green” jobs created to achieve net zero CO2 emissions are nothing but a drain on our economy.
July 28, 2024
The problem with keep on changing plans, rules and taxation, is that it discourages everything and anything..
Who in their right mind would invest £ billions into a Country when you have no idea of tax rates, production limits, regulations, or some other yet unknown chopping and changing of policy or limitations. You simply go elsewhere with your money.
Its like the Government having an overstocked food larder at home, having little money to spend, but buying expensive takeaways with a credit card, which is nearly maxed out, instead of using what you already have !
Its’s bloody daft.
July 28, 2024
I agree Alan, the deficit has come down in the Tory years, is Labour going to just shoot it straight back up. Inflation now back near to 2% was the last couple of years just the forerunner to what is on stream for us. Starmers in Europe offering concession after concession, giving up more and more of our Country for free, well at our expense.
July 28, 2024
I have often thought that both Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands should have member representation in the HOC, cementing their position as UK territory.
All the political and legal doubts about Rwanda could then disappeare, were we to ship all illegal immigrants to a holding and work camp in West Falkland. The realisation that this is the UKs solution to deter economic migrants might just switch off the Channel flow. No need for SKS to roam Europe, Walther PPK in hand, looking for gangmasters.
July 28, 2024
+1
July 28, 2024
Agricola
Good idea, but Gibraltar too close, too small, and too easy to walk away from.
Why not immediately (within 24 hours) just put them in a secure area of the Falklands until they can prove their identity, where they came from, and why they wanted to leave, it just may be a sufficient deterrent to those who are not really refugees.
Perhaps then the economic migrants may decide they want to go somewhere else, or return home, rather than stay indefinitely (until identity and Country of origin proved) in the Falklands, simply because they can not offer any sort of proof they are a bona fide Refugee.
A genuine Refugee should surely want to tell their story in detail and as quickly as possible, not hide it or delay it. etc!
Above has the benefit of us spending any money on infrastructure, accommodation, etc etc within our own territory, and being able to improve, develop, and defend it at the same time, rather than giving all money to another Nation.
A far better deterrent than Rwanda, and no ECHR to worry about.
July 28, 2024
I simply don’t believe that the people implementing the Net Zero policy in the UK “have failed to grasp that keeping our own gas in the ground means we simply import a lot more” from elsewhere.
We are being ruled by ideologues but they’re not idiots. It’s not a question of them not understanding the consequences of their actions; they are ignoring the consequences. When the Not-a-Conservative-Party, Labour Party and LibDems all support such a fundamental policy they are following Orders. Sunak very belatedly took one step away from the cliff edge when he agreed to issue new licences for north sea extraction …. and then a few weeks later called an unforced, early general election he KNEW he would lose, thereby ensuring that the policy would not proceed.
The entire Net Zero policy, being so enthusiastically pursued by the British Establishment, is anti-growth. Or to be more accurate, it is anti-growth in the UK. It’s certainly not been having that effect in China, India and other countries which are benefiting from the destructive tendencies of the ideologues in the British Establishment, including King Charles.
July 28, 2024
Good morning.
We are in the same place regarding Nut Zero as we were before the election. So I do not hold out any hope in a change in policy.
When the lights start to go out, the Labour government will just blame the Conservatives and LibDems for not planning ahead. And of course, they will do nothing to alleviate the problem other than promise more wind turbines etc. and that we must suffer in the cold order to save the planet overheating.
July 28, 2024
Recently I attended a talk on the importance of our coastal ecology and how repopulating the sea bed with sea grass is proving successful. Then I read that the government are to authorise the construction of thousands of off-shore wind turbines. But these turbines are to be floating ones with minimal effect on the sea bed, I’m told. Yeah, right. The anchorages needed will entail a huge amount of drilling, the blades will see off many birds and change the bio-diversity balance of the areas and, never talked about, the turbines themselves will have a limited life span in a corrosive environment. In addition, should hostilities with another state occur, these turbines will become easy targets and thus will require some form of defence. And this is regarded as a rational energy policy by many!
July 28, 2024
Starmer puts UK front and centre of Europe at summit to re-establish ‘closer relationship’
Yet another anti-growth policy from Starmer’s Labour Party.
July 28, 2024
“The quickest way to boost the UK economy is to get rid of the windfall taxes on oil and gas… grant many more exploration licences and speed up production licences for the established fields”.
I’m all for more hydrocarbon extraction and use, but I guess the quickest way to do this and thereby reduce our energy prices is to buy Russian product. Other things being equal (I guess our “allies” would punish us by cutting the interconnectors, if we did anything so independent).
July 28, 2024
Don’t forget that the USA is our bestest ally and they have decreed that the only way of saving us from a dark age of Bolshevik savagery is to refuse to buy Russian oil and gas and buy theirs at four times the price instead. Furthermore, they are willing to assist in this process by blowing up pipelines delivery this gas anywhere in Europe.
Germany has already concurred with this and is willing to pay the small price of the total destruction of its economy to further the interests of beneficial US hegemony from which they have enjoyed since losing WWII.
July 28, 2024
Who told you this nonsense that the US is our best ally – the US serves only the US
July 28, 2024
As an old man, I am angry at what the trash in Westminster have done to Britain. A great county that my Father and Mothers generation fought to preserve ! The communists like Milliband and Starmer should be in prison for the lies they have pushed about the scams of so-called Global Climate change and Migration!.
I am now eighty year old , so i intend to ignore all corrupt laws coming out of Westminster to allow the thieves of the WEF to fill their pockets.
The CONservatives are not innocent either , with them saying nothing despite the total lies from Johnson and Sunack, I ignored their poison they inflicted on gullible fools who held their arms out. My body , my life my decisions!
July 28, 2024
MFD, I am about 20 years younger than you but I agree entirely with your sentiments. I recall the peaceful, mostly law-abiding and homogeneous country, of my childhood and compare it to the violent multi-culti hellhole they’ve deliberately created and it makes my blood boil.
I’m glad I have no grandchildren. If I had understood their plans a few decades ago, I would not have had any children.
July 28, 2024
Donna.
Not just here, the same effect is happening all over most of the World now.
Uncontrolled population movement is a fast growing disaster !
July 28, 2024
The other day you said there was no point proposing things that the government would never do. This is one such. You need to
propose growth measures which are also consistent with general Labour policy – planning reform measures for example.
Reply They will have to change their dangerous and expensive U.K. only net zero policy, As I have explained the lack of new homes is nothing to do with planning and everything to do with high interest rates and QTv
July 28, 2024
Reply to reply.
It is incumbent on everyone who understands the utter lunacy of the UK Net Zero policy to REFUSE to do anything voluntarily to assist it. Do not get a Smart Meter. Do not get an EV. Do not ditch your gas boiler. Do not change your diet unless YOU want to. Do not invest in so-called “green” investments.
July 28, 2024
+1
July 28, 2024
Daniel Hannan today.
Rachel Reeves is about to get a harsh lesson in one of the most basic rules of economics
Labour will soon discover that you can’t squeeze more tax out of Britain without crushing the economy
There is a limit to how high taxes can go in an open society; and we may soon reach it.
We surely have already? More taxes means money and people leaving, more bartering, benefit cheating, more DIY, cash in hand, more crime and more people not bothering to work.
and Mathhew Lynn
Heads should roll over the electric car fiasco
Policymakers have wasted billions chasing a net zero pipe dream. It is time they were held accountable.
Indeed also EV cars increase CO2 if that bothers you – keeping your old car is cheaper (despite paying far more tax) and far more CO2 efficient too. Not that CO2 is a problem.
July 28, 2024
From a point of ignorance what’s the difference between a double corporation tax on profits and a windfall tax…I am presuming a DCT is less penal on the oil producers?
I get the point of producing more but shouldn’t this then lead to a lower price of oil and gas for the everyday consumer instead of huge profits fpr the large corporations?
There has been CT at double the standard rate for sometime. Windfall taxes are on top.
July 28, 2024
The price of gas and oil is governed by supply and demand, and the prices go up and down accordingly, the taxes are fixed by governments, and are getting higher, thus the actual sale price to the consumer includes a huge percentage of tax (much higher than the percentage of profit) within the final price.
July 28, 2024
Carbon accounting should be based on use not on production.
If you believe that carbon in the air is bad then the way to reduce it is to stop using fossil fuels, not stopping producing them and paying a premium to use other countries’.
If there was ever a demonstration that the whole net zero idea is based on image then net zero accounting is surely it.
UK politicians have been so keen to be seen as world leaders in so many areas that we happily cede control to foreigners (see also boat people and general immigration policy).
July 28, 2024
For those who think that the purported “Climate Emergency” will destroy us all, the Spectator has a useful check list of average crop yields from 1992 to 2022. Maize has risen from 3.91 to 5.72 tons per hectare, Wheat from 2.53 to 3.69, and Rice from 3.59 to 4.70. Some of the increase will be in better varieties, some in improved cultivation methods, but a significant proportion will be from an increase in that “damaging” carbon dioxide, also known as plant food.
July 28, 2024
Can’t argue with your comments today SirJ, they’re spot on
July 28, 2024
I see Angela Raynor’s first priority as Secretary of State is to call in two planning applications rejected by local authorities. Planning applications or housing? No, for huge data centres which guzzle enormous quantities of electricity, and require a lot of water to cool their installations. A large data centre apparently requires as much electricity as a small town.
I expect she’ll approve them, and this may set the standard for Labour’s approach to energy in future: massively increase demand for electricity (among other resources), but at the same time make it difficult for us to generate our own electricity.
Who benefits?
July 28, 2024
Unfortunately, we must endure 5 years of Labour madness and then see if we have anything left to save. The sooner we have blackouts the better as people will wake up to what Net Zero means to them personally. I’ve prepared as best I can to weather the coming storm.
July 28, 2024
Same here. I’ve prepared and will be quite relaxed if we get blackouts this winter.
July 28, 2024
“The main political parties have conspired against the oil and gas industry in the name of net zero.”
Why should this even be necessary, or in fact the continuance of the new renewables CfD subsidies contracts in September, when all the main political parties plus the CCC, Ofgem, National Grid, BBC etc. say that renewables are 9 times cheaper than gas?
Surely oil and gas should just be withering on the vine?
July 28, 2024
PS :
CAGW caused by burning hydrocarbon fuels is a hoax/scam because there is already sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to absorb all the IR radiation emitted by the planet as defined by its IR bands and the Earth’s IR Planck radiation curve. So adding more CO2 adds a negligible increase it the GHG effect, a phenomenon known as saturation, which The Royal Society admits exists. The IPCC WG1 (“The Science”) only attributes a mere 1.2 degrees C to a doubling of CO2 (P95) and Table 12 in Chapter 12 shows no signals for climate change other than some mild warming. There is no anthropogenic CO2 emissions explanation for the warming of the planet out of the last ice age which ended 11,000 years ago or for many other historical facts such as CO2 following temperature for the last 400,000 years when both have been at historically low levels as shown by the Antarctic Vostok ice core data. Or the Icelandic Norsemen colonising Greenland for several hundred years prior to the Little Ice Age which required temperatures to be 5 degrees higher than today. Or how retreating glaciers in BC Canada are revealing tree stumps which are 7000 years old.
July 28, 2024
If the IR radiation was all blocked by CO2, then it would work both ways and you wouldn’t feel the heat of the sun, only background warmth.
Water on the other hand does a much better job of blocking IR, noticeable when a cloud passes over the sun.
July 28, 2024
DA :
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. The CO2 does not block the sun’s incoming radiation, mainly in the visible and ultraviolet spectrum which warms the planet when it reaches the planet’s surface. The CO2 absorbs and then re-emits the much lower frequency IR radiation emitted by the planet. This absorption and re-emission is almost instant and continuous until this lower frequency IR radiation is finally radiated to space from the top of the atmosphere. This absorption and re-emission slows down the Earth’s IR radiation to space and this causes the GHG warming effect. Clouds block the sun’s higher frequency incoming radiation. Water vapour, which also exhibits the same IR saturation effect, also slows down to space the lower frequency IR radiation emitted by the planet producing its GHG effect.
July 28, 2024
Sir John
Yes… we have a political class, a house of MP’s that believe in the personal ideology of control and manipulation long before they believe in those that voted for them, empowered them and pay them. Not one of them and those they followed, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson then Sunak has sort to serve this great Country of ours. Everyone of them wanted to put the moulding the people in the way they wanted their minions to be, their servants, those that must bow down and be thankful for their leadership. Not one of them wanted to listen, hear or work with the people to create a better place for as all. From them it was all me, me, me, my ego and personal self-esteem – that has lead them to hate this country so much.
Welcome to the WEF Socialist World of the gang of ‘Six’. Mrs. May needs singling out as she has created a UK World of purgatory, and of malicious punishment – for no reason other than seemingly personal hate. The rest of the World gets to march on, improve people’s lives and have a future – their governments are doing what is right for their people and their Country, something our Political Class denies for the Citizens of the UK. Is Germany subject to ‘May’s’ punitive punishment Laws? Likewise, the USA, China, India, the World we have to compete in. Of corse not, they are not that vindictive. The whole religion is based on unfounded theories that even if true having the money, the economy, the wealth creation would have been a sensible human direction to cope, change and move forward. UK governments and their controllers (I don’t mean the electorate) have denied the people of the UK a future. In other words, we need a government working and serving the Country, before their Foreign Masters. It is not just May though, it is also her die-hard followers, and subsequent leaders that have picked up the banner of destruction not creation.
July 29, 2024
But, but, but …. it was SO important she had a legacy.
July 28, 2024
“The UK has inflicted harm on itself by running down its North Sea oil and gas fields prematurely, and refusing to explore and produce onshore gas in significant quantities.”
Make no mistake this is a deliberate policy by Red Ed and his comrades throughout Parliament, including the Conservative Environment Network (Mission : Net Zero by 2050), the CCC, Ofgem, National Grid et al to destroy the UK’s economy using Net Zero to transition from affordable, abundant reliable hydrocarbon energy to insufficient, expensive and chaotically intermittent renewables. As I write the 30 GW of installed wind power is providing just 0.45 GW, 2% of demand. The recently released National Grid ESO FES (Future Energy Scenario) plan shows a maximum storage potential of electricity by 2050 which is 1/500th that recommended by The Royal Society in its ‘Large-Scale Electricity Storage’ report.
July 28, 2024
What are the concrete numbers in terms of how much oil and gas can be extracted with high confidence from known reserves?
Casting around I came across an LSE article of 22 Sept 2022 which starts with this paragraph;
“Much interest and concern has been expressed about the potential for shale gas production in the UK, particularly because the country’s production of natural gas from conventional reserves no longer meets domestic demand (typically 70–80 billion cubic metres per year). Production, mostly from the North Sea reserves, reached a peak in 2000 and declined significantly up to about 2013. However, it is unclear how much shale gas exists in the UK that would be technically and economically viable to extract.”
It goes on to say;
“According to the British Geological Survey, initial estimates in 2013 suggested that the Bowland-Hodder area may have held between 23.3 and 64.6 trillion cubic metres (tcm), but a more recent analysis in 2019 suggested the figure is closer to 4.0 tcm.”
So just how much of our requirements would be confidently met before we had to yet again import oil & gas, along with the diesel and petrol we have had to import anyway?
More data and sober assessment would be welcome.
reply can easily boost by 10 % from known reserves. Need to allow more onshore licences to explore as there could really large deposits.
July 28, 2024
Thanks for reply – but 10% boost based on what? Can you point to reports/analysis.
I seem to recall from the previous fracking projects that there weren’t large on-shore sources and the individual reserves were not in large enough volumes to make production economic.
Reply Rosebank etc
July 29, 2024
But won’t that oil be exported, unsuitable for direct use here, so it wouldn’t provide energy just tax revenue for the government?
We would still have to import energy fuels.
July 28, 2024
Sir John
The future is not clear in what it might foist on us. The rest of the World prepares for the future by having the money, wealth and resources to adapt – generally called the economy.
The UK Leadership its PM and MPs deny a future to us all, it gives our chance to move forward away to others.
July 28, 2024
IAN B – Why do you use the word LEADERSHIP?
There is no LEADERSHIP.
They all follow the directives and orders from the Central command post – the Globalist UK Establishment.
July 28, 2024
Reform agenda item.
July 28, 2024
At what meetings? Reform seems still to lack any proper organisational structure.
July 28, 2024
From the MsM
“Rachel Reeves is preparing to unveil a £19bn black hole in the public finances as she builds up to an autumn tax raid.” by giving the Milliband £8.3 billion of money which is not reviewed by her regulator the OBR, then with Sadiq Khan demanding an extra £25 billion from the taxpayer to fund his election promises.
Then Labour as with previous UniParty devotees refuses the UK to resource and create a future. Keep importing until the wealth is gone
July 28, 2024
The catastrophe failure of leadership and of energy policy rests with the Conservative Party. Fourteen years ago they inherited a totally failed energy policy which they could have changed. They choose to follow Labour’s disastrous CCA 2008 and ploughed on with a uni-party parliament, ignoring manifesto pledges and the will of the people. Starmer’s Labour have merely collected the ‘batten’ from Sunak and the downward spiral of our Country continues. Ideology drives policy, physics, technical reality and economics are completely ignored. We are heading for one hell of a train smash.
July 28, 2024
Factor this in –
Most of the atmosphere above the blanket of air close to the Earth`s surface is becoming dramatically colder.
On YaleEnvironment360 – e360.yale.edu – The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling , Prompting New Climate Concerns .
July 28, 2024
Known since Manabe & Strickler’s radiative convective model published in … 1964.
July 28, 2024
Are all the windmills, solar panels and heat pumps resourced from within the UK? Or are they simply imported, or assembled from imported components?
Export what little wealth this country has to pay for imports is just dishing out the punishment
July 28, 2024
Logical decisions are denied in the pursuit of net zero.Having studied global warming theory for over thirty years the missed opportunities to benefit from a gentle warming not caused by CO2 are enormous. Regrettably too many of our populace are blind.
July 28, 2024
That’s not going to happen and that is why labour will not get any real growth out of the economy because netzero demands the opposite. It requires that we take factory and food production back to pre-industrial levels.
Not making use of our oil shows exactly why netzero is contrary to everything we need.
When the wind stops blowing or is blowing too hard in winter, how many will die of cold because of the insane government policies on energy? There is no other way to describe the irrational policies than insane and these same policies are going to kill a lot of people and ruin what is left of our economy.
When will we all see what is happening – and all for a myth?
July 28, 2024
It’s looking Labour’s economic plan is going to fall apart even quicker than I thought it would.
Desperate measures like telling a disbelieving public that there is a £20bn black hole just won’t wash. Reeves and Starmer saw all the books before the election and even the IMF is now saying that the economy is doing better than they thought.
Now we have Miliband E saying that energy bills will rise in the autumn and that “savings” from his net zero policy will take time to come through. We can read that as meaning Never !
Increasing CGT to income tax levels will reduce the tax take ( a consequence of Laffer ), and the increase tax take from NonDoms and VAT on private schools will be illusionary.
Cooper has never had any idea of how to stop the boats, and she has increased the estimate of the cost of housing all of the economic migrants to £10bn a year. Here we have frequently discussed the enormous cost of increasing our population by almost half a million a year and Starmer has no plan to reduce those numbers either.
The wheel is going to fall off the Labour wagon very quickly. I can imagine the IMF are already running their fingers over Labour’s plans for the British economy. Any hope of a dash for growth are disappearing by the day.
July 28, 2024
With the deficit already around £50bn a year, shouldn’t this be the figure for the black hole?
Reading around, I got the impression the £20bn black hole was how much short the Labour government would be once they press ahead with their additional spending plans, like public sector pay rises.
July 28, 2024
So if oil and gas on its own is so important for an economy, explain the economy of Nigeria or Venezuela to us?
Reply Venezuela has been ruined by nationalisation and socialism. It produces so little oil and gas now as govt taxed, regulated an£ nationalised it to death.
July 28, 2024
It’s time for the Conservative MPs to thoroughly research Global Warming, Climate Change, CO2, and Net Zero. This could be a pivotal moment, leading to a more robust political discourse. It’s an opportunity to challenge the Labour Government’s position on this matter and show it is absolute nonsense.
To be blunt, Sir John, you skirt around the subject, but you know it is all absolute rubbish. As you are no longer an MP, perhaps you could take the lead in exposing the GW/CC/NZ for the cobblers it is!
Cheap, reliable energy is the basis for a successful growing economy, but it seems to have been passed by both our previous and current Governments. Why are our MPs so swept up in groupthink?
Reply I do not skirt around it. I led the arguments to persuade the last govt to allow more domestic oil and gas production, have urged a reversal of self harming and self defeating policies on deindustrialisation, ev s and heat pumps and urged global not national CO 2 accounting.
July 28, 2024
Its there and Scotland want to be independent.
July 28, 2024
It’s not in Scottish waters, it’s in Shetland waters and Shetland say they will NOT be ‘independent’ as part of Scotland.
July 28, 2024
It will never happen although it is absolutely the correct action. The idiots in charge are more interested in virtue signalling than taking action to deliver growth, lower energy costs and improve the lives of the majority of the population. I think they really may believe that the planet is at existential risk.
July 28, 2024
Rachel Reeves announcement tomorrow about the Black hole in the finances deserves a full audit by one of the big four accountancy groups or better still by IMF special investigator’s – there should be no need for political sparring – we need to know so let the professionals sort it
July 28, 2024
Rachel Reeves announcement tomorrow about the Black hole in the finances deserves a full audit by one of the big four accountancy groups or better still by IMF special investigator’s – there should be no need for political sparring – we need to know so let the professionals sort it
July 28, 2024
Its 2300hrs and the party has one hour to save itself ….we need a strong right-wing tory leader
July 29, 2024
Totally agree. The path we are following is not correct for growth or enrichment of the people. If we are to take in more immigrants we need to be self-sufficient to cater for them. This is all going to end in tears.
July 29, 2024
So easy to fix. Get fracking. Get a gas surplus and export. Get more cash in the coffers. More taxes paid by the workers. Bigger supply chain. More income tax. The local community gets 100,000 UKP per well and then 1% of revenue or it has been suggested that give free gas / elec to residents and businesses with 2 miles. If they allowed fracking at Preston New Road – a deprived area outside of Blackpool – and gave nearby businesses free gas / electricity, businesses would run to the place. It is so easy.
July 29, 2024
+1