Britain's North Sea has over eight billion barrels worth of untapped oil and gas reserves within 45km of existing North Sea infrastructure, a new report from the offshore energy trade body has estimated.
Timed just ahead of what is expected to be an increase in the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers in the chancellor's Autumn Statement, Offshore Energies (OEUK) added that the reserves are roughly eight times the UK’s annual consumption of oil and gas.
Mark Wilson, OEUK's safety director, said: “With the right support, exploration activity in the UK can play a critical role, ensuring the UK can meet domestic demand, deliver energy security and become an enabler for the energy transition.
“Pursuing these resources is critical to a managed and homegrown transition to cleaner energies, preventing a rapid increase in the nation’s reliance on imports and prioritising domestic resources.”
In 2021, three-quarters of the UK’s total energy supply came from oil and gas, with 56% of this being met by domestic production, according to the report.
Due to the war in Ukraine, fears of energy shortages this winter have grown, leading the UK to search for ways to reduce dependency on Russia for natural gas.
Recently, reports emerged that prime minister Rishi Sunak was in advanced talks with the US over a deal that would see billions of cubic metres of liquified natural gas (LNG) imported to the UK.
LNG has been in the spotlight recently for causing up to ten times the CO2 emissions per barrel than piped gas.